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FARMER'S COMPANION; 

ESSAYS 



ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE 



AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



THE ADDRESS, 



PREPARKD TO BE DELIVERED BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL 

AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES OF NEW HAVEN 

COUNTY, CONNECTICUT, 



\ 'f 



AN APPENDIX, 



CONTAINING 
TABLES AND OTHER MATTER USEFUL TO THE FARMER. 



BY THE LATE HONORABLE JESSE BUEL, 

CONDUCTOR OF ' THE CULTIVATOR.' 




BOSTON 
MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB. 
1839. 



y 



• ■ 



. f^jA.^^^i. ^-# 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 
Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb, 

in the Clerk's Office of the pietrict Court of Massachusetts. 



3 6. r ? 



EDXrCATION PRESS. 






PREFACE. 

My prominent object, in presenting this volume to the pub- 
lic, is to aid in the improvement of American Husbandry. 
Even he that has received but the one talent, is bound to 
put it to interest for the benefit of his country. Influenced 
by this consideration, and the almost total deficiency of 
books upon American husbandry, for school and rural libra- 
ries, I have been induced to send abroad this volume, in the 
hope, that it will contribute, in some degree, to improve and 
elevate this primary branch of national industry. Should it 
be favorably received, I propose to prepare another volume, 
treating particularly of the management of Tillage Crops, 
the Garden, the Orchard, &c. 

Bred to a mechanical business, I took up Agriculture, 
more than twenty years ago, from choice, as the future busi- 
ness of my life. Without the pretensions or conceits which 
we are all apt to acquire in the long practice of a business, 
I began farming with a consciousness that I had every thing 
to learn, and that the eyes of my neighbors would be quick 
to detect faults in my practice. I at once, therefore, sought 
to acquire a knowledge of the principles of my new busi- 
ness, and of the practice of the most enlightened and suc- 
cessful farmers. These I found in books and agricultural 
periodicals ; and by these I have been greatly benefited. 
Although it does not become me to herald my success, I 
will venture to say, to encourage others, and particularly 
the young, in the work of self-instruction and improvement, 
that my lands, which are light and sandy, and which cost, 
in an uncultivated state, thirty dollars an acre, are now 
worth two hundred dollars an acre, for farming purposes ; 
or, in other words, that the net profit of their culture 
exceeds the interest of two hundred dollars per acre. 



4 PREFACE. 

I make no pretension to scientific or literary attainments, 
other than such as men acquire in the active business of 
life. I write as I think and practise ; and have endeavored 
to adapt my style to the capacities of common readers. In 
detailing the operations of the farm, I have endeavored to 
explain the principles on which these operations are founded. 
Indeed, so far as my ability would permit, I have endeavor- 
ed to unite science and art, as I think they ever ought to be 
united, in all the business of farming of which I have treated. 

The great objects of the farmer should be, to obtain the 
greatest returns for his labor, ivithout deteriorating the fertility 
of the soil ; and to restore fertility , in the most economical way, 
where it has been impaired, or destroyed, by bad husbandry. 
It has been my aim to give instruction upon these points, and 
to explain the principles upon which my recommendations 
are based, and upon which my individual practice has been 
founded. J. Buel. 

Albany, September, 1839. 



NOTE BY THE PUBLISHERS. 

Scarcely had the ink with which this volume was written become dry, ere 
we were called upon to mourn the loss of its intelligent and highly-respected 
Author, who, while on a mission of good to his Agricultural brethren, was sud- 
denly cut off, in the mid-day career of his usefulness, at Danbury, Con., October 6, 
1839, after an illness of a few days' continuance. The high estimation in which he 
was held, is amply evinced by the expressions of regret for his loss, and of 
respect for his memory and worth, that have appeared in the public prints 
throughout the Union. He had long been identified with one of the most im- 
portant interests of our country, and more recently shone as an ardent advocate 
of another equally as important interest. After a careful examination of the 
various projects that have been devised for furnishing School Districts with suita- 
ble Libraries, he became fully convinced of the superiority of the Massachusetts 
plan, and accordingly repeatedly expressed, through the columns of the Cultiva- 
tor, his decided preference for ' The School Library' now publishing under the 
sanction of the Massachusetts Board of Education, and, as a still stronger evi- 
dence of his preference, he prepared for the larger Series the present volume. 

During the past season, he compiled a volume, consisting of selections from 
the columns of the Cultivator ; permission to print which was by him granted to 
the Publishers of ' The School Library,' but they preferring a freshly written 
and original work, were favored with this. It was the intention of Judge Buel 
during the coming winter, to follow this with another work on matters interest- 
ing to the Farmer and general reader, but the All-wise Disposer of events has 
seen fit to order differently, and this volume, therefore, as his last and most 
important work, must be looked upon as a rich legacy by him bequeathed to 
the friends of Agriculture and Education, and as an earnest of what, had his 
life been spared, he would have continued to do, for the advancement of the two 
interests, for whose success his earnest aspirations were sent up. 

A call having been made for this work, the Publishers have been induced to 
issue the present edition in advance of that designed for ' The School Library.' 

Boston, November, 1839. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page. 

Importance of Agriculture to a Nation, .... 9 

CHAPTER n. 

The Improvement of our Agriculture practicable 

and necessary, 16 

CHAPTER III. 

Some of the Principles of the New and Improved 

Husbandry, 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

Agriculture considered as an Employment, ... 26 

^1. As a Means of obtaining Wealth, ... 27 
^ 2. As promotive of Health and the Develope- 

mentof the Mind, 28 

§ 3. As a Means of individual Happiness, . . 32 
^4. As a Means of enabling us to fulfil the 

temporal Duties of Life, 33 

CHAPTER V. 

Earths and Soils, 35 

CHAPTER VI. 

Improvement of the Soil. — Preliminary Operations, 53 

CHAPTER VII. 
Analogy between Animal and Vegetable Nutrition, 57 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Further Improvement of the Soil, 62 

1* 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Improvement of the Soil by Animal and Vegetable 

Manures, 66 

CHAPTER X. 

Improvement by Mineral Manures, ..... 78 

CHAPTER XI. 
Improvement by Draining, 92 

CHAPTER XII. 
Operations of Draining, 98 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Principles of Tillage, 112 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Operations of Tillage, 124 

§ 1. The Plough, 124 

§ 2. Rules for Ploughmen, 141 

^S. The Harrow, 144 

^ 4. The Roller, 148 

^ 5. The Cultivator, 150 

§ 6. The Drill Barrow, 151 

CHAPTER XV. 

Alternation of Crops, 152 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Root Culture, 163 

CHAPTER XVII. 

On substituting Fallow Crops for naked Fallows . 169 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

On the Adaptation of particular Crops to certain 

Soils, 182 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Effects of Cropping and Manuring, 186 

CHAPTER XX. 
Rules and Suggestions in Farming, 194 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XXL 

On the Improvement of Grass-lands, 204 

§1. Of Pastures, 205 

^2. Of Meadows, 208 

CHAPTER XXII. 

On the Cultivation of Grasses, 211 

§ 1. Herbage Plants, 212 

§ 2. Cultivated Grasses, 223 

Table of the comparative Product and Value of 

Grasses, 235 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The Atmosphere, and its Uses to the Husbandman, 237 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
On the Germination of Seeds, 246 

CHAPTER XXV. 
On Stall-feeding Cattle, 249 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Economy of cutting up Corn, 251 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
On Rural Embellishment, 253 

Address, prepared to be delivered before the Agri- 
cultural and Horticultural Societies of New Ha- 
ven County, Con., 261 

Appendix. — Collections of Facts. 

Mathematics and Physics, 283 

Measures of Length, 284 

Weights, 286 

Measures of Capacity, 286 

Interesting Facts in Chemistry, 287 

Philosophical Facts, 291 

Tables. Number of Bushels of Marl necessary to 

give 1 per cent, of Carbonate of Lime, 292 

Breadths and Lengths of an Acre, . . 293 
Comparison of American, Scotch, and 

Irish Acre, 293 



8 CONTENTS, 

Tables. Number of Hills or Plants in an Acre, 294 

Contents of an Acre of Land, .... 296 

Foreign Coins, &c., 296 

Definitions of Terms used in Agriculture, . 297 

Glossary of Chemical Terms, 301 



FARMER^S COMPANION. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 

There is no business of life which so highly conduces 
to the prosperity of a nation, and to the happiness of its 
entire population, as that of cultivating the soil. Agricul- 
ture may be regarded, says the great Sully, as the breasts 
from which the state derives support and nourishment. 
Agriculture is truly our nursing mother, which gives food, 
and growth, and wealth, and moral health and character, 
to our country. It may be considered the great wheel 
which moves all the machinery of society ; and that 
whatever gives to this a new impulse, communicates a 
corresponding impetus to the thousand minor wheels of 
interest which it propels and regulates. While the other 
classes of the community are directly dependant upon 
agriculture, for a regular and sufficient supply of the 
means of subsistence, the agriculturist is able to supply 
all the absolute wants of life from his own labors ; though 
he derives most of his pleasures and profits from an in- 
terchange of the products of labor with the other classes 
of society. Agriculture is called the parent of arts, not 
only because it was the first art practised by man, but 
because the other arts are its legitimate offspring, and 
cannot continue long to exist without it. It is the great 
business of civilized life, and gives employment to a vast 
majority of almost every people. 

The substantial prosperity of a country is always in 
the ratio of its agricultural industry and wealth. Com- 
merce and manufactures may give temporary consequence 



10 THE IMPORTANCE OF 

to a state, bat these are always a precarious dependance. 
They are eftemmating and corrupting ; and, unless back- 
ed by a prosperous agricultural population, they engender 
the elements of speedy decay and ruin. Venice, Genoa, 
Portugal, Spain, &c., each in turn rose to wealth and 
power by commercial enterprise. But they all now ex- 
hibit melancholy evidences of fallen greatness. They 
have fallen, in succession, from their high standing, vic- 
tims to the more robust energies of rival powers, or to 
the enervating and corrupting influence of commercial 
cupidity. They exhibit nothing now, in their political or 
social institutions, and but little in their agriculture or 
in the useful arts, that can be admired or coveted, by the 
citizens of our free country. Great Britain has now 
become ascendant in commerce and manufactures, yet her 
greatness in these sources of power and opulence, is 
primarily and principally owing to the excellent condition 
of her agriculture ; without which she would not be able 
to sustain her manufactures or her commerce, in their 
present flourishing state, or long retain her immense 
foreign possessions, or any thing hke her present popula- 
tion. Only one third of her inhabitants are said to be 
employed in agriculture ; yet the labors of this one third, 
such is the high condition of her husbandry, sufiice to fur- 
nish subsistence for the whole. Five millions, of all ages, 
produce annually, from her limited soil, seven hundred 
millions worth of agricultural produce, averaging about one 
hundred and forty dollars for each man, woman, and child 
of her agricultural population. The recently-published let- 
ters of the Rev. Dr. Humphreys are so conclusive and so 
instructive upon this subject, not only in regard to the 
importance of agriculture to a nation, but as showing the 
susceptibility of this art of high improvement and great 
productiveness, that we here quote an extract in illustra- 
tion of what we have stated. 

"It is the opinion of competent judges," says Dr. 
Humphreys, " that the advances made in the agriculture 
of Great Britain, during the last seventy or eighty years, 
are scarcely exceeded by the improvement and extension 
of its manufactures, within the same period ; and that to 



AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 11 

these advances, no other old-settled country furnishes any 
parallel. That they have been very rapid indeed, the 
following figures and comparisons abundantly show : In 
1760, the total growth of all kinds of grain in England 
and Wales, was about 120,000,000 bushels. To this 
should be added, perhaps, 50,000,000 for Scotland — 
making a total of 170,000,000. In 1835, the quantity in 
both kingdoms could not have been less than 340,000,000 
bushels. In 1755, the population of the whole island 
did not much, if any, exceed 7,600,000. In 1831, it 
had risen to 16,525,180, being an increase of 9,000,000, 
or 120 per cent. ! Now, the improvements in agriculture 
have more than kept pace with this prodigious increase 
of demand for its various productions ; for it is agreed on 
all hands, that the 16,500,000, or rather the 17,500,000, 
(for more than a million has been added since 1831,) are 
much fuller fed, and on provisions of a better quahty, 
than the 7,500,000 were in 1755. Nor is Great Britain 
indebted at all, at present, to foreign markets for her 
supphes. Since 1832, she has imported no grain worth 
mentioning ; and till within the last six months, prices have 
been so exceedingly depressed, as to call forth loud com- 
plaints from the whole agricultural interest of the country. 
England is, at this moment, so far from wanting any of 
our bread-stuffs, if we had them to export, that she has 
been supplying us all winter liberally from her own grana- 
ries ; and, according to the latest advices, she has still 
bread enough, and to spare. Again, it is estimated by 
British writers, of high authority, that the subsistence of 
9,000,000 people costs, in raw produce, no less than 
£72,000,000, or <£8 for each individual, per annum. 
According to this estimate, the annual product of this 
great branch of national industry is $350,000,000 more 
at present than it w^as in 1755 ; which is more than 
twice the value of the whole cotton manufacture of the 
country, in 1831. Now if it costs $350,000,000 to feed 
the increased population of 9,000,000, then to feed the 
present population of 17,500,000 must cost near 7,000,- 
000 ! What an amazing agricultural product for so 
small a territory ! And yet it is the opinion of practical 



12 THE IMPORTANCE OF 

men of the highest respectability in England, that the raw 
produce of the island might be well-nigh doubled, with- 
out any greater proportional expense being incurred in its 
production ; that is to say, 25,000,000 people might 
draw their subsistence from that one little speck in the 
ocean ! Now we have a territory more than fifteen times 
as large as the island of Great Britain ; and what should 
hinder it, when it comes to be brought under no higher 
cultivation than some parts of England and Scotland, 
from sustaining a population of five or six hundred mil- 
lions of people ? This would give to Virginia something 
hke thirty milHons ; to Illinois and Missouri, about the 
same number each ; to New- York near twenty-five mil- 
lions, and so on in proportion to the other States. I am 
quite aware that this estimate will be regarded as ex- 
tremely visionary and incredible, by many of your read- 
ers ; but not more so than it would have been thought in 
the middle of the last century, that England, Scotland, 
and Wales could ever be made to sustain thirty-five, or 
even thirty milHons." 

A city may flourish by foreign commerce — by becom- 
ing the carrier of other nations, as Venice and Genoa have 
once done ; — till foreign aggression, or foreign rivalship — 
contingencies of no unfrequent occurrence in the history 
of nations — shall blast its prospects, and reduce it, like 
the cities we have named, to ostentatious beggary, or 
consign it, like Tyre, Persepolis, Petra, and other cities 
of the East, to ruin and oblivion. 

A town or district may flourish by its manufacturing 
industry, as many have done in ancient and modern times, 
as long as it can exchange its merchandise for the means of 
subsistence and of wealth ; but if its dependance for these 
contingencies is upon foreign lands, its prosperity is unsta- 
ble. The interchange may be interrupted or destroyed 
by war, by the want of a demand for its commodities, or 
a failure in a supply of the necessaries of life. 

A country can only continue long nrosperous, and be 
truly independent, when it is sustained oy agricultural intel- 
ligence, agricultural industry, and agricultural w^ealth. 
Though its commerce may be swept from the ocean — and 



AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 13 

its manufactures perish — yet, if its soil is tilled, and well 
tilled, by an independent yeomanry, it can still be made 
to yield all the absolute necessaries of life ; — it can sus- 
tain its population and its independence ; — and when its 
misfortunes abate, it can, like the trunkless roots of a 
recently cut down tree, firmly braced in, and deriving 
nourishment from, the soil, send forth a new trunk, new 
branches, new foliage, and new fruits ; — it can rear again 
the edifice of its manufacturer, and spread again the sails 
of its commerce.* 

But agriculture is beneficial to a state, in proportion 
as its labors are encouraged, enlightened, and honored — 
for in that proportion does it add to national and individ- 
ual wealth and happiness. 

Agriculture feeds all. Were agriculture to be neg- 
lected, population would diminish, because the necessa- 
ries of life would be wanting. Did it not supply more 
than is necessary for its own wants, every other art 
would not only be at a stand, but every science, and 
every kind of mental improvement, would be neglected. 
Manufactures and commerce originally owed their exist- 
ence to agriculture. Agriculture furnishes, in a great meas- 
ure, raw materials and subsistence for the one, and com- 
modities for barter and exchange for the other. In pro- 
portion as these raw materials and commodities are 
multiplied, by the inteUigence and industry of the farmer, 
and the consequent improvement of the soil, in the same 
proportion are manufactures and commerce benefited — 

* Those who labor in the earth, are the chosen people of God, if 
ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made a peculiar 
deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. Corruption of morals in 
the mass of cultivators, is a phenomenon in which no one, nor nation, 
has found an example. It is a mark set on those, who, looking up to 
heaven, and to their own soil and industry, depend not on the casual- 
ties and caprice of customers. Dependance begets subserviency and 
degeneracy, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the 
designs of ambition. Thus the natural consequence and progress of 
the arts, has sometimes, perhaps, been retarded by accidental circum- 
stances ; but, generally speaking, the proportion which other citizens 
bear in the state to that of husbandmen, is the proportion of its un- 
sound to its healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer, whereby to 
measure its degree of corruption. — Jefferson 

2 XV. 



14 THE IMPORTANCE OF 

not only in being furnished with more abundant supplies, 
but in the increased demand for their fabrics and merchan- 
dise. The more agriculture produces, the more she 
sells — the more she buys ; and the business and comfort 
of society are mainly influenced and controlled by the 
resuhs of her labors. 

Jlgriculture^ directly or indirectly^ pays the burdens 
of our taxes and our tolls^ — which support the govern- 
ment, and sustain our internal improvements ; and the 
more abundant her means, the greater will be her contri- 
butions. The farmer who manages his business igno- 
rantly and slothfully, and who produces from it only just 
enough for the subsistence of his family, pays no tolls on 
the transit of his produce, and but a small tax upon the 
nominal value of his lands. Instruct his mind, and awaken 
him to industry, by the hope of distinction and reward, 
so that he triples the products of his labor, the value of 
his lands is increased in a corresponding ratio, his com- 
forts are multiplied, his mind disinthralled, and two thirds 
of his products go to augment the business and tolls of 
our canals and roads. If such a change in the situation 
of one farm, would add one hundred dollars to the wealth, 
and one dollar to the tolls of the state, what an astonish- 
ing aggregate would be produced, both in capital and in 
revenue, by a similar improvement upon 250,000 farms, 
the assumed number in the State of New York. The 
capital would be augmented two millions, and the revenue 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. 

Jlgriculture is the principal source of our wealth. It 
furnishes more productive labor, the legitimate source of 
wealth, than all the other employments in society com- 
bined. The more it is enlightened by science, the more 
abundant will be its products ; the more elevated its char- 
acter, the stronger the incitements to pursue it. What- 
ever, therefore, tends to enlighten the agriculturist, tends 
to increase the wealth of the state, and the means for the 
successful prosecution of the other arts, and the sciences, 
now indispensable to their profitable management. 

Agriculturists are the guardians of our freedom. 
They are the fountains of political power. If the foun- 



AGRICULTURE TO A NATION. 15 

tains become impure, the stream will be defiled. If the 
agriculturist is slothful, and ignorant, and poor, he will be 
spiritless and servile. If he is enlightened, industrious, 
and in prosperous circumstances, he will be independent 
in mind, jealous of his rights, and watchful for the public 
good. His welfare is identified with the welfare of the 
state. He is virtually fixed to the soil ; and has, there- 
fore, a paramount interest, as well as a giant power, to 
defend it, from the encroachment of foreign or domestic 
foes. If his country suffers, he must suffer ; if she pros- 
pers, he too may expect to prosper. Hence, whatever 
tends to improve the intellectual condition of the farmer, 
and to elevate him above venal temptation, essentially 
contributes to the good order of society at large, and to 
the perpetuity of our country's freedom. 

Jlgriculture is the parent of physical and moral health 
to the state — it is the salt which preserves from moral cor- 
ruption. Not only are her labors useful in administering to 
our wants, and in dispensing the blessing of abundance to 
others, but she is constantly exercising a salutary influence 
upon the moral and physical health of the state, and in 
perpetuating the republican habits and good order of 
society. While rural labor is the great source of physi- 
cal health and constitutional vigor to our population, it 
interposes the most formidable barrier to the demoralizing 
influence of luxury and vice. We seldom hear of civil 
commotions, of crimes, or of hereditary disease, among 
those who are steadily engaged in the business of agricul- 
ture. Men who are satisfied with the abundant and cer- 
tain resources of their own labor, and their own farms, 
are not willing to jeopard these enjoyments, by pro- 
moting popular tumult, or tolerating crime. The more 
we promote the interest of the agriculturist, by develop- 
ing the powers of his mind, and elevating his moral views, 
the more we shall promote the virtue and happiness of 
society. 

The facts which are here submitted must afford ample 
proof, that agriculture is all-important to us as a nation ; 
and that our prosperity in manufactures, in commerce, 
and in the other pursuits of life, will depend, in a great 



16 IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE 

measure, upon the returns which the soil makes to agri- 
cultural labor. It therefore becomes the interest of 
every class, to cherish, to encourage, to enlighten, to 
honor, and to reward those who engage in agricultural 
pursuits. Our independence was won by our yeomanry, 
and it can only be preserved by them. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE PRACTICABLE AND 
NECESSARY. 

To render agriculture more productive, and beneficial 
to all, it is necessary that its principles should be better 
understood, and that we should profit more from the ex- 
perience of each other, and by the example of other coun- 
tries which excel us in this great business. It is true of 
the manufacturing and mechanic arts, that our citizens do 
profit greatly by the improvements which have been made, 
and are continually making, in these arts, whether in 
Europe or in America. If an improvement, tending to 
economize labor, to simphfy manipulation, or to produce 
certainty in results, is this year made in any part of Eu- 
rope or America, in these arts, it is known, — it is adopted, 
and it profits the artisans and the manufacturers of our 
country, in the coming year. Thus the improvements of 
the civilized world, in the manufacturing and mechanic 
arts, are made subservient to our use in the short space 
of a twelvemonth. Is it so with agriculture ? We are 
sorry to say it is not. Mr. Coke, one of the most en- 
lightened agriculturists of this or any other age, who has 
been the means of converting a large sandy, and compara- 
tively barren district, into one of great productiveness and 
wealth, has said, that his agricultural improvements, and 
they have been manifestly great, have hardly extended 
around him more than at the rate of three miles a year, — 
such have been the prejudices, and such the ignorance 
of the agricultural population. It is from these causes — 



PRACTICABLE AND NECESSARY. 17 

the want of better knowledge, and the lack of means of dis- 
seminating it — that our agricultm-e ranks so low in the 
public estimation — that every young aspirant for fame and 
fortune, turns from this pure source of independence and 
happiness with derision, and seeks for higher enjoyments 
— for fame and fortune — in pursuits which, alas ! often 
disappoint his hopes, and which add httle or nothing to 
the promotion of the public good. 

Yet agriculture may be rendered as progressive in im- 
provement, as profitable and as honorable, as any of the 
other arts of productive labor — and more independent than 
any other employment, if the agriculturist will employ the 
same means to enlighten his mind, and improve his prac- 
tice, which the artisan and the manufacturer, and others 
employ. He lacks neither the means nor the natural 
capacity for improvement ; and there is no business sus- 
ceptible of greater enlargement, in the elements of human 
happiness, than the one he pursues. We possess a soil, 
prolific in the riches and blessings of a wise and beneficent 
Creator, who has spread around us all the elements of 
happiness. He has given to us capacities for applying 
these elements for our own good, and the good of others. 
He has commanded us to exercise these capacities, in 
the use of these means, — and He has promised to reward 
— and He does bountifully reward — all who prove faith- 
ful to his command. 

Let us here stop and inquire, what our agriculture is, 
and what it may and should be. Generally speaking, our 
practice is bad. Its tendency is to exhaust the soil of its 
natural fertility — to render the products of our farms less 
and less annually — until they become too poor to support 
our families, or pay us for our labor, — until hundreds and 
thousands are obliged either to sell out, for a nominal 
consideration, and to resort to new and unexhausted soils, 
to retrieve their fortunes, or to sink their patrimonial es- 
tates, *and to sink themselves and their families to indigence 
and want. To illustrate what we here state, in regard to 
the defective condition of our husbandry, and to show the 
causes which have operated to produce it, we beg to in- 
troduce an extract, from a highly-distinguished statesman 
2* 



18 IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE 

and farmer, the Honorable James M. Garnett, of Vir- 
ginia. In a letter to the writer of this essay, in reply to 
some queries that had been addressed to him, he remarks : 
" Your first question is, ' Have not successive crops 
of wheat, of corn, of tobacco, greatly deteriorated some 
of her once fertile soils ?' [alluding to Virginia.] And 
your second is like unto it — ' Have they not reduced thou- 
sands and tens of thousands, of her good acres, to com- 
parative sterility — to unproductive commons ?' To both 
I reply — that we have, alas ! hundreds of thousands of 
once good acres long ago reduced to ' comparative ste- 
rihty,' but not to ' unproductive commons ;' for they still 
produce what we call hengrass, broom-straw, and, ever 
and anon, a starveling pine or cedar bush — the reproach- 
ful and melancholy mementoes of ancestral improvidence. 
But the successive crops to which you ascribe this, are 
far from being the only, or the chief causes of the lamen- 
table fact. From the first settlement of the country, un- 
til within a few years past, the most deadly enemies to 
good husbandry, in Virginia, have been — the utter neg- 
lect of it as a science ; — the implicit adoption, by each 
successive generation, of the practices of their 
forefathers ; — the almost total neglect of manures — 
except for gardens ; — the incessant alternate cropping 
and grazing our lands without rest ; — the culture of 
them in a certain rotation of workings loithout a due re- 
gard to the condition of the soil, as to wetness or dryness. 
But, above all, to the proprietors of this goodly soil 
generally using it more as the means of gratifying their 
appetites — their love of show, and the means of display- 
ing it, than as sources of future comfort, respectability, 
and happiness to their children, as well as of credit and 
honor to their native State. The acme of ambition, in 
the olden time, seemed to be, who should have the best 
cheer, and the most company to consume it — with little 
or no regard to the ' material' of which it was composed ; 
provided these ' Nate consumera fruges' were lovers of, 
and tolerable contributors to, fun and frolic. As long as 
the plantation held out in furnishing the means of this 
ruinously-merry career, the troublesome study and prac- 



PRACTICABLE AND NECESSARY. 19 

tice of good husbandry were postponed, like the study 
and practice of religion, Wo a more convenient season.'' 
This, sir, I sincerely believe, is a true and just explana- 
tion of the complicated causes which have contributed to 
empoverish a vast portion of our lands, and much to my 
shame and sorrow have I given it. But I have the con- 
solation to feel assured, that the dawn of a much better 
state of things, — at least in regard to husbandry, — is now 
shining in almost every part of our old State. I fear to 
inquire how much is owing to the absolute necessity of 
reform — how much to motives every way laudable, and 
shall therefore content myself with the fact. There is, 
however, one cause of the happy change with us, in regard 
to the efficacy of which I feel so perfectly confident, that 
I cannot omit to mention it. This is — the circulation 
among us, of our friend Ruffin's Farmers' Register and 
your Cultivator,* which have done more than every thing 
else towards it. Both are read by great numbers of our 
brethren, and have greatly contributed to awaken them to 
a true sense of the vast losses they have sustained by 
their long and destructive neglect of the study and prac- 
tice of agriculture." 

Let not the Northerners take credit to themselves from 
this outline of old Virginia husbandry, or from the ingen- 
uous detail of the causes which brought it to so low a 
condition. Though not exactly the like causes have op- 
erated, the same deteriorating system of husbandry has pre- 
vailed with us, though perhaps to a more limited extent. 
Though we have personally attended more to the art — 
to the practice — yet we have been equally deficient in 
the science with our brethren of Virginia — equally indif- 
ferent to the study and application of the principles upon 
which good husbandry must ever be based. And although 
we may have begun earher in the business of reform, 
whether from necessity or from choice we will not say, 
we are still too defective in practice to boast of our trivial 
acquirements. Neither let him boast too soon who is 
now luxuriating upon the fertile soils of the west, the ac- 

* At the date of this remark, nearly two thousand copies of the 
Cultivator were circulated in Virginia. 



20 IMPROVEMENT OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 

cumulated treasure of ages, and, In too many instances 
we fear, exhausting that fertility which of right belongs 
to coming ages. Like causes will produce the same effects 
in the west, that we now deplore in the east. The ocean 
would in time become exhausted, were it not for the 
streams which are constantly flowing into its bosom. 
The soil will become barren by constant cropping, unless 
we give back to it some of the fertilizing matters, which 
crops are continually taking from it. 

The truth is, we have regarded the soil as a kind moth- 
er, expecting her always to give, give, without regarding 
her ability to give. We have expected a continuance 
of her bounties, though we have abused her kindness, 
and disregarded her maternal admonitions. We have 
managed the culture of the soil as a business requiring 
mere animal power, rather than as one in which the intel- 
lect could be brought largely to co-operate. We have 
not gone into the principles of science — of cause and 
effect — the laws of Nature, which are certain and immu- 
table, and which must ever have a controlling influence 
over the soil and its manifold productions. Like prodi- 
gal sons of wealth, we have gone on recklessly wasting 
the treasures intrusted to our care, for the use of coming 
generations. 

But there is a redeeming spirit abroad. The lights of 
science are beaming upon the agricultural world, and dis- 
sipating the clouds of superstitious ignorance which have 
so long shrouded it in darkness. The causes which have 
for some time been actively operating to improve the 
condition of the other arts, and to elevate the character 
of those who conduct them, are extending their influence 
to agriculture. A new and better system of husbandry is 
coming into vogue, which has already been productive of 
great good, and which promises many new comforts and 
blessings to ourselves and children. 



PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW HUSBANDRY. 21 

CHAPTER III. 

SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE NEW HUSBANDRY. 

The new system of husbandry is based upon the 
belief, that our lands will not wear out, or become 
exhausted of their fertility, if they are judiciously man- 
aged ; but, on the contrary, that they may be made pro- 
gressively to increase in product, — in rewards to the 
husbandman, and in benefits to society, at least for some 
time to come. It regards the soil as a gift of the benefi- 
cent Creator, in which we hold but a life estate, and 
which, like our free institutions, we are bound to trans- 
mit, UNIMPAIRED, to posterity. 

The principles of the new husbandry teach, that the soil 
is the great laboratory for converting dead into hving mat- 
ters — the useless into the useful — manure into plants — 
plants into animal food : That plants, like animals, are or- 
ganized beings ; that is, they live, grow, and require food 
for their sustenance — have organs to take in food, to elab- 
orate it, to transmit it through their systems — organs of 
sexual intercourse, of reproduction, &c., all acting together 
to one end : That plants cannot, any more than animals, 
live upon mere air, or earthy matters, as clay, sand, and 
lime, but that they require, for their growth and perfection, 
animal and vegetable matters : That the effect of growing 
and carrying off the ground successive crops, is to exhaust 
the vegetable food in the soil ; and that continued cropping 
will ultimately render it barren and unproductive, unless 
we return to it some equivalent for what we carry off. 

The principles of the new husbandry also teach, that 
by carefully saving, and suitably applying, all the fertiliz- 
ing matters afforded by the farm ; by an alternation or 
change of crops, and by artificially accelerating or retard- 
ing the agency of heat, moisture, air, and light, in the 
process of vegetable growth ; by. draining, manuring, 
ploughing, harrowing, hoeing, &c., we may preserve, un- 



22 SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES 

impaired, the natural fertility of our soils ; — and that, with 
the aid of improved implements of husbandry, and a good 
system of management, we may also greatly increase the 
profits of its culture. 

These principles do not rest upon mere theory. They 
have been long reduced to practice, thoroughly tested, 
and their correctness amply verified. They have, in 
their practical application, virtually converted Flanders 
into a garden, and rendered it so fertile in human food, 
that each acre is said to be capable of supporting its man. 
The system which these principles inculcate, has changed 
Scotland, in a little more than half a century, from com- 
parative sterility and unproductiveness, into one of the 
richest and most profitable agricultural districts in Europe. 
It has increased the products of the corn harvest, in Great 
Britain, in sixty years, from 170 to 340 millions of 
bushels. It has doubled, trebled, and quadrupled the ag- 
ricultural products of many districts in our own country. 
It has augmented the value of farms, in some of these dis- 
tricts, two, three, and four hundred per cent. — from twen- 
ty and thirty dollars, to one hundred dollars and more per 
acre. It has made every acre of arable land, upon which 
it has been practised ten years, and lying contiguous to 
navigable waters or a good market, worth at least one 
hundred dollars, for agricultural purposes. 

We will state some cases of comparison, between the 
products of the old and new system of farming, to illus- 
trate more fully the advantages of the latter. 

The average products in Flanders are stated by Rad- 
chffe as follows : wheat 32 bushels, rye 32^, oats 52, 
potatoes 350, per acre. Flanders has generally a flat 
surface, with a light, sandy soil, illy adapted to wheat. 
It is naturally very similar to the sandy district upon the 
sea-coast in New Jersey, Maryland, and the sandy plains 
in the valley of the Connecticut. 

In the fertile districts of Scotland, according to Sir 
John Sinclair, and in propitious seasons, "the farmer 
may confidently expect to reap, from 32 to 40 bushels 
of wheat ; from 42 to 50 bushels of barley ; from 52 to 
64 bushels of oats, and from 28 to 32 bushels of beans, 



OF THE NEW HUSBANDRY. 23 

per statute acre. As to green crops, 30 tons of turnips, 
3 tons of clover, and from 8 to 10 of potatoes, per statute 
acre, may confidently be relied on. In favorable sea- 
sons, the crops are still more abundant." Professor 
Lowe gives the average products of Scotch husbandry 
somewhat lower than the above. It is to be remem- 
bered, that, sixty years ago, the average was probably 
not one quarter as much as it is now. 

Loudon states the average product of wheat in Eng- 
land, at 24, 28, and 32 bushels per acre — mean average 
26 bushels. 

The preceding references are made to old-settled 
countries — to lands which have been under culture for 
many centuries — to lands which were once worn out by 
bad husbandry, but which have been renovated and ren- 
dered highly productive by the new system. 

In 1790, General Washington, in a letter to Arthur 
Young, computed the average crop in Pennsylvania, 
then one of the best wheat-growing States, as follows : — 
wheat 15 bushels, rye 20, barley 25, oats 30, Indian 
corn 25, potatoes 75. Mr. Strickland, who resided in 
Maryland about forty years ago, in a report which he 
made to the British Board of Agriculture, gave the aver- 
age product of our wheat crop at 12 bushels the acre, 
and of Dutchess county, then, as now, our best cultiva- 
ted county, at 16 bushels. 

Bordley, about the period we are referring to, stated 
the average yield of Indian corn, on the Eastern Shore 
of Maryland, at 15 bushels per acre. 

These quotations are sufficient to show, that in our 
old-improved districts, the crops do not in any wise com- 
pare with those grown in Flanders, Scotland, and Eng- 
land, — and this difference in product is owing entirely to 
the different modes of managing the soil ; for wherever 
the new system has had a fair trial among us, it has been 
as successful as it has been in Europe. 

We will illustrate still further the difference between 
the two systems, by stating the products, or their value, 
on the same lands, under the old and under the new sys- 
tems of husbandry. 



24 SOME OF THE PRINCIPLES 

We are furnished, in Rees's Cyclopedia, with many 
statements, demonstrating the superiority of the new over 
the old system. We will quote some of them. The 
first comparison is made on a farm devoted to grazing, 
breeding, and tillage, of 314 acres, in Yorkshire. Under 
the old mode of husbandry, the nett profits amounted to 
JE31G 105. ; under the new system the same lands gave a 
nett profit of £596, making a difference of £278, or 
nearly one hundred per cent., in favor of the new system. 
The second is that of a tillage farm of 139 acres in Lin- 
colnshire. Under the old system the profits were <£130 
— under the new <£452 ; difference in favor of the latter 
o£322, or 250 per cent. The third statement exhibits the 
profits of an acre of land, being the medium of a farm of 
several hundred acres, in Yorkshire, for six years. Under 
the old system the profit was £1 9s. 3d. — under the new 
£17 6s. 9d, — an increase of more than 1100 per cent. 
The medium value of the acreable profit in England is 
stated at from 27 to 36 dollars per annum. 

We have spoken of Mr. Coke as one of the best far- 
mers of the age. He owns a large estate in Norfolk, 
England, a portion of which he has been personally im- 
proving for half a century, the residue being occupied by 
tenants. The rental upon his estate has risen, in fifty 
years, in consequence of the improvement in husbandry 
which he has introduced, from £5,000, to £40,000. 

The Hoffwyl Agricultural School farm, in Switzerland, 
under M. Fellenburgh, comprises 214 acres. Lord 
Brougham, often visiting this farm, and making inquiries 
of the Principal, says he found that the average annual 
profit of the pattern-farm alone, for a period of four years, 
amounted to £886 sterling, equal to about $4,000, ex- 
clusive of the cattle concern, which was kept separate. 

The last case we will cite abroad, is that of the farm 
belonging to the Agricultural School of Moegelin, in 
Prussia, under Doctor Von Thaer. The school was 
established in 1809. In twelve years the value of the 
farm was increased from 2,000 to 12,000 rix dollars, by 
the improved mode of cultivating it. 

The cases we have quoted, we admit to be extraordi- 



OF THE NEW HUSBANDRY. 25 

naiy ones ; yet they are not without parallels in our own 
country. Agriculture has been in a state of progressive 
improvement in the valley of the Pludson, for thirty and 
forty years. The lands have been increasing in value in 
consequence. The change has been so great in some 
districts, that farms which twenty years ago were sold for 
20 to 25 dollars an acre, have recently been sold for 100 
to 120 dollars an acre; and in other cases, particularly 
on Kinderhook plains, farms which were bought thirty 
years ago at five and ten dollars an acre, have lately 
commanded sixty and seventy dollars. Few farms of 
tolerable land in Dutchess, Orange, or other river coun- 
ties, contiguous to the Hudson, can now be bought at 
less than from 100 to 150 dollars an acre, in consequence 
of their increased productiveness, caused by improved 
husbandry. 

Doctor Black has demonstrated, in his prize-essay, 
pubhshed in the American Farmer, that every acre of 
arable land in New Jersey, which now sells at from ten 
to thirty dollars per acre, is intrinsically worth five hun- 
dred dollars per acre ; that is, if put under a judicious 
system of husbandry, every acre may be made to yield 
a nett profit of thirty dollars per annum, equal to the in- 
terest on five hundred dollars, at 6 per cent. And Mr. 
Johnson, of Maryland, in a speech which he made in 
Congress in 1837, cites a case in Delaware, near Dover, 
where land was bought, a few years ago, of medium 
quality, at thirty dollars an acre, by Messrs. Sipple and 
Pennewell, which has paid in its product for all outlay 
in improvement, and the owners are now receiving, in 
the farm-crops which it gives, an annual clear income 
equal to the interest oifive hundred dollars an acre. 

We will ofter but one other illustration in support of 
the great superiority of the new husbandry. It is that of 
John Robinson, Esq., an intelligent, industrious Scotch 
farmer. Fifteen years ago, Mr. Robinson bought a 
farm on the banks of Seneca Lake, three miles from 
Geneva, at ten dollars an acre. The farm was consid- 
ered worn out. Mr. Robinson, with the aid of sheep, 
lime, manure, and good husbandry, has made it produce, 
3 XV. 



26 AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED 

over and above the expense of culture, and the support 
of his family, an annual income equal to the interest of 
one hundred and fifty dollars an acre, — and the farm is 
still in a state of progressive improvement. The income 
from 400 acres is now $4000. Mr. Robinson has refused 
$100 per acre for the whole. 

We might multiply instances of worn-out lands being 
brought into a highly productive and profitable state, by 
the new husbandry, were it necessary ; but almost every 
old-settled district furnishes examples in point. Enough 
has been shown, or may be seen, to justify us in saying, 
that, under the new system of husbandry, every acre of 
arable land, if any where contiguous to navigable waters 
or a good market, may in a few years be made to yield 
a nett annual profit, equal to the interest of two hundred 
dollars. And we may add, that with such an income, 
and the industry and economy which belong to republi- 
can habits, there are few employments in fife better cal- 
culated than agriculture to render a man independent 
in circumstances and in mind, and rich in all the elements 
of substantial happiness. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED AS AN EMPLOYMENT. 

Every provident parent is anxious to see his children 
settled in some business of life, that promises to confer 
wealth and respectability ; and every young man, who 
aims to arrive at future and honorable distinction, is anx- 
ious to select that employment which is most likely to 
realize his wishes. It is with a view to enable both pa- 
rent and son to act wisely in this matter, that we pro- 
pose to point out some of the advantages which agricul- 
ture holds out to those who embark in its pursuits. 

We propose to consider agricultural employment under 
the following heads : — 

§ 1 . Asa means of obtaining wealth ; 



AS AN EMPLOYMENT. 27 

§ 2. As promotive of health, and the useful develope- 
ment of the mind ; 

§ 3. As a means of individual happiness, the great 
pursuit of life ; 

§ 4. As a means of enabling us to fulfil the high ob- 
jects of our being ; — of performing the duties which we 
owe to our famihes, our country, and our God. 

§ 1 . As a JWeans of obtaining Wealthy 

Adequate to our wants, and to all the beneficial pur- 
poses of life, agriculture certainly holds a pre-eminent 
rank. With that industry and prudence, which Provi- 
dence seems to have made essential to human happiness, 
and that knowledge which we all have the means of ac- 
quiring, its gains are certain, substantial, and sufficient — 
sufficient for ourselves, for the good of our children, and 
the healthful tone of society. It does not, we admit, af- 
ford that prospect of rapid gain, which some other em- 
ployments hold out to cupidity, and which too often dis- 
tract and bewilder the mind, and unsettle for life the 
steady business habits of early manhood ; yet neither 
does it, on the other hand, involve the risks, to fortune 
and to morals — to health and to happiness — with which 
the schemers and speculators of the day, who would live 
by the labor of others, seem ever to be environed. Great 
wealth begets great care and anxiety, and is too apt to 
engender habits unfriendly alike to the possessor and to 
society. Wealth that comes without labor, is often wast- 
ed without thought ; but that which is acquired by toil 
and industry, is preserved with care, and expended with 
judgement. The farmer, therefore, who secures an an- 
nual and increasing income by his industry, though it be 
small in the outset, is much more likely to become ulti- 
mately rich, not only in dollars and cents, but in all the 
substantial elements of happiness, than the man of almost 
any other profession in hfe. 

We have shown that farm lands have been made to 
produce an annual income of thirty dollars an acre ; and 
have said, that by good husbandry they may certainly be 
made to produce a nett income of fourteen dollars an 



28 AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED 

acre. Now, if a farmer, upon a hundred acres of land, 
can save fourteen hundred dollars a year, to buy super- 
fluities for his family, educate his children, and to add to 
his capital, he must, at the end of twenty years, be either 
a rich man or an improvident one ; and if improvident, 
he will probably remain poor, be his employment what it 
may. But suppose the nett income of a farm should be 
but half, or a quarter of the sum we have assumed — that 
is, $7, or $ 3,50, an acre ; — even this income, prudently 
managed, will in a few years place the possessor in inde- 
pendent circumstances. 

§ 2. e^5 promotive of Health and the Developement of 
the Mind. 

The grand requisites to health, or rather for the pre- 
vention of diseases, are declared by Dr. Johnson, one of 
the highest medical authorities of the age, to be — exercise 
in the open air — temperance in our living — moderation in 
our pleasures and enjoyments — restraint on our passions — 
limitation to our desires, and limitation to our ambition.* 

What employment is there in life, so highly favorable 
to all the benign influences of exercise — so conducive to 
repose and tranquillity of mind — and which has so few 
temptations to intemperate enjoyments — as that of agri- 
culture. And the only ambition which is likely to ob- 
trude upon the farmer, and this is in no wise, we believe, 
prejudicial to the health either of his body or his mind — 
is the ambition of increasing the prolific properties of the 
soil, whereby he may benefit himself and society. Polit- 
ical ambition, which, like a cancer, is apt to prey upon 
and corrupt the mortal upon whom it fixes its fangs, abides 
not upon the farm ; at least it should not abide there — for 
that farmer must be either weak or unfortunate who is wil- 
ling to give up the certain and tranquil pleasures of a rural 
home, for the vexing, precarious, and corrupting cares 
and responsibilities of political eminence, otherwise than 
as duty may require it at his hands. " Horticulture and 
agriculture are better fitted for the promotion of health 

* Economy of Health. 



AS AN EMPLOYMENT. 29 

and of sound morals," says an eminent medical author,* 
"than any other human occupation." The business of 
agriculture is one of exercise in its most approved forms. 
It brings into healthful action the entire muscular system ; 
and when exercised with prudence, as all employments 
should be, it insures appetite, digestion, sleep, a sound 
constitution, and a contented mind. " The declaration 
is as trite as it is true, that exercise promotes virtue, and 
subdues the storms of passions."! 

Although the garden and the farm may be made to fur- 
nish a great many delicacies and luxuries for the table, 
yet these delicacies and luxuries are such as conduce alike 
to health and to rational pleasure. It is a remark of St. 
Pierre, that every country and every clime furnishes, 
within itself, the food which is best fitted for the wants of 
the animals which dwell in it. The same remark, with a 
trifling modification, will apply to the farm. The prod- 
ucts of the farm and garden do constitute the best food 
for the farmer ; and there is no class who can indulge in 
a greater variety of native products, or enjoy them in a 
higher state of freshness and perfection, than those who 
grow them. And upon the farm, and among an intelli- 
gent rural population, the pleasures of social intercourse 
are not curtailed by the cold formalities, nor taxed by the 
extravagant folly, of the town and city. The agricultur- 
ist relies upon his own resources — upon his industry and 
the blessing of Providence, for the enjoyments of hfe. 
His farm and his family are the special objects of his 
care, and his ambition is to obtain good crops, a good 
name and reputation in society, and to deserve them, by 
a liberal and kind deportment to all around him. He is 
exempt from a crowd of evils — of rivalships and jealous- 
ies — of corroding cares and feverish anxieties — which not 
unfrequently hang around other professions, mar the pleas- 
ures of life, and undermine health. He should hate no 
one ; for he should dread no rivals. If his neighbor's 
field is more productive than his own, he borrows a use- 
ful lesson. If his own field is the most productive, it 

* Dr. Caldwell, Prof. Med. Dep. Transylvania College, Ky. 

t Dr. Harris, Philadelphia, on Physical Culture. 
3* 



30 AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED 

affords him pleasure to benefit his neighbor by his exam- 
ple. He learns to identify his own, with the prosperity 
of his neighborhood and of his country. 

^' Exercise is the universal law of improvement for the 
faculties of the mind, as well as of the powers of the 
body."* " The profession of agriculture is more favor- 
able to the entire developement of the human faculties ; to 
the unfolding and perfecting of this physical, this intellec- 
tual, this moral and immortal being, which God has given 
us, than any other employment. It imparts vigor to the 
body and to the mind, leaving the soul free from feverish 
excitements, to imbitter, as it were with its growth, the 
lessons which Nature teaches ; in fine, it is capable of 
ministering, most successfully of all arts, and of all occu- 
pations, to wealth, to intelligence, and to virtue, "f 

And what an expansive field is ever before the eye of 
the agriculturist, for study, for reflection, for usefulness, 
for the enjoyment of rational happiness ! The book of 
Nature, replete with the teachings of Divine Wisdom, 
always lies open before him ! 

The elements are subservient to his use ; the vegeta- 
ble and animal kingdoms are subject to his control ! And 
the natural laws which govern them all, and which exert 
a controlhng influence upon his prosperity and happiness, 
are constantly developing to his mind new harmonies, new 
beauties, perfect order, and profound wisdom, in the works 
of Nature which surround him. Nor need he, in these 
studies of usefulness, be restricted to his own personal ob- 
servation. He may call to his aid, both in the prosecution 
of his business, and the improvement of his intellectual fac- 
ulties, the counsels of eminent men of every age and every 
country, who have left for our use the record of their 
experience and their wisdom. And we say it without 
qualification, that there are few professions in the communi- 
ty, which give more leisure for general reading, or whose 
employments embrace a greater scope of useful reading, 
than the business of agriculture. The artisan is generally 
obliged to employ his winter evenings in labor ; and those 

* Wild's Report on Manual Labor in Literary Institutions, 
t Canadian Quarterly Agricultural and Industrial Magazine. 



AS AN EMPLOYMENT. 31 

engaged in the liberal professions, and in mercantile busi- 
ness, are not only accustomed to do the like, but their 
study is In a measure restricted to their particular calHng. 
The agriculturist, on the contrary, may devote his even- 
ings, or most of them, to study — to the improvement of 
his mind — to the acquisition of useful knowledge. He 
may devote three hours out of the twenty-four to study, 
without infringing upon his necessary business, or fatiguing 
his mind, or impairing his health. This Is allowing eight 
hours for sleep, ten for labor, and three for contingencies. 
What profession is there, which, if well conducted, gives 
a larger portion of time to the acquisition of general 
knowledge ? And what a scope of usefulness may be 
embraced by these studies ! The properties of the soils 
which grow his bread and meat — their adaptation to par- 
ticular crops — the cause of their deterioration — the modes 
of renovating or increasing their fertility — by farm ma- 
nures, by lime, gypsum, marl, and by admixture of earths ; 
by draining, irrigation, and alternating crops: — the animals 
which are consigned to his care — their form. Internal 
structure, appropriate management ; the nature, cause, 
and cure of their diseases ; the various foods most profit- 
ably raised for the nourishment of the different kinds ; 
and the best modes of preparing and feeding it : — the 
crops which he cultivates — their relative value, their hab- 
its, proper succession, exhausting influence upon the soil, 
and the best modes of their management : — the agency of 
air, heat, light, and moisture in preparing vegetable food, 
in the processes of vegetable nutrition and developement, 
and the means of accelerating or retarding their agency ; 
all these are matters which come specially within the 
province of the agriculturist. The more knowledge he 
has in these matters, the more hkely he is to succeed. 
His unaided observation and experience may do much ; 
yet If to his own, he can add the observations and expe- 
rience of hundreds of others. In his particular business, 
as observing and intelligent as himself, he must certainly 
be able to profit greatly by it, and to advance in improve- 
ment. 

Labor is in no wise incompatible with study ; but, on 



32 AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED 

the contrary, it is necessary, or exercise is necessary, to 
the developement of the facuhies of the mind ; and where 
study and labor are directed to the same object, as they 
may be in agricuhure, they tend particularly to stimulate, 
and to give pleasure and profit to each other. Many of 
the most eminent and useful men in the improvement of 
society have been such as have prosecuted their studies 
while daily laboring in their professional business. Among 
those, of our country, who have been distinguished for 
public usefulness, we may name Franklin, Rittenhouse, 
Fulton, Sherman, &c., who were all hard-working men, 
and who greatly improved their minds, while they daily 
labored with their hands. 

§ 3. As a Means of Individual Happiness. 

One of our good and great men has said — " If happi- 
ness is to be found upon earth, it must certainly be sought 
in the indulgence of those benign emotions which spring 
from rural cares and rural labors." " As Cicero," he 
continues, " sums up all human knowledge in the charac- 
ter of a perfect orator, so we might, with much more 
propriety, claim every virtue, and embrace every science, 
where we draw that of an accomplished farmer. He is 
the legislator of an extensive family ; and not only man, 
but the brute creation are subject to his laws. He is the 
magistrate, who expounds and carries these law^s into 
operation. He is the physician, w^ho heals the wounds, 
and cures the diseases, of his various patients. He is 
the divine, who studies and enforces the precepts of 
reason. And he is the grand almoner of the Creator, 
who is continually dispensing his bounties not only to his 
fellow-mortals, but to the fowls of the air, and to the 
beasts of the field."* 

Though there are many ways and devices by which 
men endeavor to obtain wealth and happiness, there is 
perhaps no employment in which these are obtained with 
so much certainty, — few which apparently better fulfil the 

* Chancellor Livingston's Address before the Society of Agriculture 
and the Arts. 



AS AN EMPLOYMENT. 33 

beneficent designs of the Creator — than that assigned to 
our first parents — the cultivation of the soil. It has, to 
be sure, like all other avocations, its cares and its toils — 
its thorns ; — yet its cares and its toils often turn out to be 
substantial blessings ; and, unlike most other avocations, 
it has more of the roses than the thorns of life. '' Agricul- 
ture," wrote Socrates, "is an employment most worthy 
the application of man, the most ancient, and the most 
suitable to his nature ; it is the common nurse of all per- 
sons, in every age and condition of life ; it is the source 
of health, strength, plenty, and riches, and of a thousand 
sober delights and honest pleasures. It is the mistress 
and school of sobriety, temperance, justice, rehgion, and, 
in short, of all the virtues, civil and military." 

§ 4. Jls a JVLeans of enabling us to fulfil the Temporal 
Duties of Life. 

These duties consist, first, in providing honestly for 
ourselves and families ; secondly, in helping our neigh- 
bor ; and, thirdly, in promoting the good of society at 
large. It is the due performance of these duties that 
gives worth and dignity to the human character, — that 
makes the good man, — that renders him useful and re- 
spected, — and that constitutes the temj)oral elements of 
human happiness. Every virtue has its reward, and every 
vice a punishment, in one form or another, even here, 
to say nothing of a hereafter. The indolent man, who 
provides not for himself and his own, but lives upon the 
labor of others, becomes a dependant upon the sympa- 
thies or charities of the world, and is a stranger to the 
high and manly feelings that flow from conscious inde- 
pendence. He who cares not for the welfare of his 
neighbor, or seeks not to promote it, is a stranger to the 
best feelings of humanity — he is a misanthrope in practice, 
if not in heart. And he who feels not his obligations to 
society, for the protection and security it affords him, in 
the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property — and who 
does not use a portion of his means and his influence, 
from a high sense of duty, to promote the common weal 
— to maintain order, law, and a tone of moral health in 



34 AGRICULTURE CONSIDERED, ETC. 

society, — Is not a good citizen, whatever maybe his pre- 
tensions to talents or to wealth. 

Now, agricultural employment, in the first place, enables 
us to provide by our industry for all the first wants, and 
for most of the substantial comforts of life ; — to superin- 
tend and assist in the education of our children ; to form 
their habits, restrain their bad passions and propensities, 
and to start them in life in a course of industry and use- 
fulness. 

In the second place, the condition of the agriculturist 
enables him to help his neighbor, and promote his wel- 
fare, in a variety of ways — by his counsel, by pecuniary 
aid, and particularly by his example. In the city, in- 
dividual example is hmited in its influence, or lost in the 
crowd, except in very eminent individuals ; but in the 
country, it becomes conspicuous to all ; and the good 
farmer is sure of benefiting those around him, not only 
by the improvements which he introduces upon his farm, 
but by his exemplary deportment in life. 

In the third place, no one is better fitted than the 
farmer, to appreciate his high obligations to society, — no 
one has a stronger interest in performing them. He en- 
joys the fruits of his labor in peace and quietude, because 
the laws protect him. He participates in all public im- 
provements, as they tend to enhance the value of his 
farm and his products. He rejoices in the prosperity of 
other professions, as they are his customers. He sees 
constantly around him the works of Creative Wisdom ; he 
sees that they are all governed by immutable laws — and 
that he is himself subject to these laws ; and his employ- 
ments, his reflections, and a conscious sense of duty, 
impel in him a desire to aid in carrying out the great and 
beneficent designs of the Lawgiver. 

Having considered agriculture in its influence upon the 
prosperity of nations, — having demonstrated its suscep- 
tibility of great improvements, and noticed some of the 
principles and profits of the new husbandry ; and having 
endeavored to satisfy our readers, that there is no employ- 
ment so conducive to health and happiness, by the labor 
and study which it involves, as this parent art, — we will 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 35 

next proceed to speak of some of its principles and prac- 
tices.* 



CHAPTER V. 

EARTHS AND SOILS. 

Earths are the productions of the rocks which are 
exposed on the surface of the globe, and are as various 
as the rocks which produce them. They consist mainly 
of sand, clay, and lime, with, occasionally, an admixture 
of magnesia, iron, &c. They are considered more or 
less fitted to become the basis of a good soil, in propor- 
tion to the quantity of organic remains which the rocks 
contain from which they originate — primitive rocks afford- 
ing the poorest, and secondary rocks the best basis. 
Hence the utility of geological surveys. But the earths 
alone, however blended, do not possess fertility. 

Soils consist of earths, with more or less of the de- 
composed organic matters afforded by dead plants and 
animals, — which latter constitute the true food of plants, 
as much as hay, grain, roots, and herbage constitute the 
true food of farm-stock. 

Earths are found in the ashes of plants ; and silex is 
apparent in the epidermis of Indian corn, wheat, oats, 
and the hollow grasses ; and, although the earths seem 

* " The man who makes agriculture not merely productive, but 
honorable ; who surrounds his farm with the images of the most at- 
tractive happiness ; who dwells in a neat abode, such as a republican 
might build, and republican simplicity ought to desire ; who, in addi- 
tion to the song of the robin, can make the music of contentment flow 
around his calm abode ; can unite it with the intelligence of a citizen 
who knows his rights, and is determined to defend them ; who shows 
that this business is favorable to mental culture, and as fair a road as 
any to political eminence ; — -such a man does more to encourage the 
profession, than all other causes combined. He touches the springs 
of action in their centre, and blesses his country and mankind. He 
plants the laurel beside the plough, and allures thousands to come, 
and, after having toiled within its fragrance, to sit beneath its shade." 
— Whitington's Address before the Essex Agricultural Society. 



36 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

essential in both the animal and vegetable structure, they 
are not considered as forming any portion of the proper 
food of either. Lime enters adventitiously into the food 
of animals, and is transformed into bone. Silex enters 
in the same way into the food of vegetables, and forms a 
part of the epidermis of plants, like those we have named, 
rendering them hard and rigid ; and seems designed to 
strengthen and defend them from the attacks of insects 
and parasitical plants. The earthy parts of the soil are 
useful in retaining water, an essential agent in preparing 
the food of vegetables, and the medium of conveying the 
food thus prepared into and through the vegetable struc- 
ture ; and they are also useful in producing the proper 
distribution of animal and vegetable matter. It is the 
finely-divided matter, principally clay and hme, which 
gives tenacity and coherence to soils, a strong affinity for 
moisture and manures, and which most tends to fertility, 
when it does not exist in excess. 

'' A certain degree of friability, or looseness of tex- 
ture, is also required in soils, in order that the operations 
of culture may be easily conducted ; that moisture may 
have free access to the fibres of the roots ; that heat 
may be readily conveyed to them, and that evaporation 
may proceed without obstruction. Both water and air 
must circulate in a soil, to render it productive. Hence 
the presence of sand is necessary. As alumina possesses 
all the properties of adhesiveness in an eminent degree, 
and silex those of friability, it is obvious that a mixture 
of these two earths, in suitable proportions, would furnish 
every thing wanted to form the most perfect soil, as to 
water and the operations of culture. In a soil so com- 
pounded, water will be presented to the roots by capillary 
attraction. It will be suspended in it, in the same man- 
ner that it is suspended in a sponge, not in a state of 
aggregation, but minute division, so that every part may 
be said to be moist, but not wet." — Grisenthwaite. 

Another property to be regarded as of value in a soil, 
is its capacity to absorb moisture from the atmosphere, 
in which vapors more or less always abound. The soils 
which possess this property in the highest degree, are 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 37 

those which contain sand, finely-divided clay and hme, in 
due proportions, and animal and vegetable matters. If 
such soils are rendered permeable to the atmosphere, 
which is always charged with the gaseous food of vegeta- 
bles, by good tillage, and by the surface being kept clean 
and loose, they are seldom affected by drought. Carbo- 
nate of lime, and animal and vegetable matters, impart 
to the soil this property, without increasing its tenacity. 
A soil containing 11 parts of carbonate of lime, and 9 
parts of vegetable matter, in 1000, when dried to 2120, 
gained in an hour, by exposure to air, saturated with 
moisture, at a temperature of 62°, 18 grains ; 1000 parts 
of fine sandy soil gained, under hke circumstances, 11 
grains ; and 1000 parts of coarse sand only 8 grains.* 
Thus it would seem, that the power of a soil to absorb 
moisture from the air, and with air other elements of fer- 
tihty, depends, first, upon the presence of vegetable and 
calcareous matters ; and^ secondly, upon the soil being 
well tilled, and the surface rendered permeable to the 
atmosphere. 

The color of the soil has an influence upon the agency 
of heat in inducing fertility, and consequently early matu- 
rity of the crop. Several farm-crops, in our northern 
latitude, require a high temperature in the soil to bring 
them to timely maturity. Such, particularly, are Indian 
corn, and, in unfavorable seasons, the potato. White 
soils, especially of clay, are heated with difficulty, owing 
not only to color, but to compactness and retentiveness 
of moisture. Such are truly denominated cold soils. 
Black soils, abounding in vegetable matter, heat rapidly 
under the sun's rays, and cool almost as rapidly when the 
sun's rays are withdrawn. Sir H. Davy found that a 
rich black mould, which contained nearly one fourth of 
vegetable matter, had its temperature increased in an 
hour, from 65° to 88°, by exposure to sunshine ; while a 
white chalk soil was heated only to 69° under the same 
circumstances. 

Now, as the soil supplies all our wants, and is, directly 

* Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. 

4 XV. 



38 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

or indirectly, the source of our wealth and enjoyments, it 
merits our particular study and attention. The measure 
of the blessings which it confers on the human family, is 
wisely made to depend upon the intelligence, skill, and 
industry which are employed in its cultivation. If these 
are properly applied, the reward will be bountiful. If 
they are neglected, want, vice, and wretchedness will 
ensue. 

To render his farm-stock profitable, in meat, milk, and 
wool, every farmer knows he must provide for them an 
abundance of wholesome food, as he must be aware that 
it is this food which makes his meat, milk, and wool, and 
gives the ultimate profits. And he takes care, if he is a 
good manager, so to economize his food as to yield him 
the greatest return in these products. We should think 
him very improvident, who, instead of feeding out roots 
and forage to his stock, should throw them away, or let 
them spoil for want of a Httle care, or permit them to be 
consumed by his neighbors' stock. 

Let these remarks be applied to our plants. Our 
farm-crops, like our farm-stock, must be fed, if we would 
make them profitable to us ; and the former, like the 
latter, will be profitable precisely in proportion to the 
food we give them, and the judicious care with which we 
give it. The vegetable lives and thrives upon animal 
and vegetable matters, after they have become useless to 
the animal, and are reduced, by decomposition, to a 
liquid or gaseous state. Every substance that has once 
belonged to an animal, has previously been a vegetable ; 
and every substance that has been a vegetable, whether 
it be found in a sohd, liquid, or aeriform state, is con- 
vertible into hving plants. So that it is as important, in 
good farming, to economize dung, or whatever will make 
dung, and Judiciously to feed it to crops, as it is to hus- 
band well the hay and grain of the farm, destined to feed 
and fatten the cattle. The soil is the stomach, the re- 
ceptacle of the food of plants, in which manure is digested, 
converted into substances that are soluble, that is, capable 
of being dissolved, by the moisture of the soil ; and of 
afterwards being absorbed by the minute roots of plants, 



EARTHS AND SOILS. - 39 

— as food, after undergoing the digestive process in the 
animal stomach, is taken up by the lacteals. In the ani- 
mal, the food, after undergoing various changes, is con- 
verted into flesh, bone, sinew, milk, wool, &c. In the 
vegetable, the food, in hke manner, is converted into 
stem, foliage, blossoms, and fruit, grain, or roots. Both 
the animal and the plant exhaust the food which nourishes 
them ; and if we would keep the animal fat, or the soil 
fertile, we must continue to replenish the food. 

We have introduced this comparison here, in order to 
impress more fully upon the minds of our young readers, 
the importance and the means of feeding their crops. 

Soils are variously classed by different writers. Von 
Thaer and Fellenburgh have enumerated more than eighty 
varieties. Sinclair has divided them into sand, gravel, 
clay, chalk or lime, peat, alluvial, and loam. We shall 
adopt the latter classification, and consider each separ- 
ately. 

1. Sandy soils are those where sand most predomi- 
nates. They are loose, easily worked, but are not re- 
tentive of manure or moisture, owing to their porous 
texture. They are best adapted to tap-rooted plants, as 
carrots, turnips, clover, lucerne, to Indian corn, and alter- 
nating husbandry. They comprise a great portion of the 
lands upon the Atlantic border, from New York to the 
Capes of Florida, and most of the pine lands of the inte- 
rior. Their mechanical texture is improved by marl, and 
by an admixture of clay, which often underlay them, or 
abound in their vicinity. If the silex does not exceed 
60 to 65 percent., they are as profitably managed, under 
good husbandry, as most other lands. Under the old 
exhausting system they soon become worthless. If not 
too flat and wet, sandy soils are well adapted for sheep, 
which assist much to keep up and to increase their fertihty. 
The county of Norfolk, in England, is principally a sandy 
soil. Sixty years ago it gave but a very lean product ; 
but under the alternating system of husbandry, including 
the turnip culture, it has become the most productive and 
profitable county for agricultural products in England. 
Flanders is mostly sand, and a portion of it was original- 



40 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

\y poor and unproductive ; yet there is perhaps not now 
a district in Europe that makes a better return for agri- 
cultural labor. Where sands contain carbonate of lime, 
and are kept in good condition, they yield wheat, barley, 
and other farm-crops, besides those first enumerated, and 
become converted ultimately into a species of light loam. 

The celebrated Mr. Ducket, of England, founded his 
practice in managing sandy soils on three principles : 1. 
He ploughed very deep ; a due degree of moisture was 
thus preserved in his light land, by means of which his 
crops escaped the evils of drought, while his neighbors' 
crops suffered severely. 2. He ploughed seldom, but 
effectually covering all the weeds. He sometimes raised 
seven crops with four ploughings. One good ploughing 
will always suffice to prepare sandy ground for a crop ; 
and a second ploughing is injurious, if it turns up the sod 
or other vegetable matters to the surface. The cultivator 
will frequently supersede the use of the plough, in the 
preparation for a crop. It is a good practice to sow clo- 
ver or grass seeds with all small grains, or broad-cast 
crops, upon sands, to improve the texture, and to impart 
fertility to the soil. The benefits will greatly overbal- 
ance the expense. 

< The Flemings have converted some districts, which 
were originally a barren white sand, into a most fertile 
loam. They cultivated at first only to the depth of three 
or four inches ; but gradually went deeper as the soil be- 
came enriched, until they had got a very deep soil — and 
now the ground, says Sinclair, at the commencement of 
every rotation, is trenched by a shovel (the soil being very 
loose) to the depth of fifteen to eighteen inches, the ex- 
hausted surface is buried, and the fresh surface brought 
up, enriched by the manure washed down to it during the 
preceding seven years. 

The generic name of a soil is determined by the earth 
which prevails in it ; as clayey, sandy, calcareous, &c. 
Where two prevail to all appearance equally, then their 
names may be conjoined, as clay and sand, lime and clay, 
&c. The term sandy, according to Davy, should not be 
applied to a soil which does not contain seven eighths of 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 41 

sand ; sandy or gravelly soils that effervesce with acids, 
should be distinguished by the names of calcareous sands, 
or calcareous gravels, to distinguish them from those that 
are silicious. The term clayey soil should not be ap- 
plied to any land that contains less than one sixth of im- 
palpable matter, not considerably effervescing with acids; 
the word loam should be limited to soils containing at 
least one third of impalpable earthy matter, copiously 
effervescing with acids. A soil, to be considered as 
peaty, ought at least to contain one half of vegetable mat- 
ter. In cases where the earthy parts of a soil evidently 
consist of the decomposed matter of one particular rock, 
a name derived from the rock may with propriety be 
applied to it. Thus if a fine red earth be found immedi- 
ately above decomposing basalt, it may be denominated 
basaltic soil. If fragments of quartz and mica be found 
abundant in the materials of the soil, which is often the 
case, it may be denominated granitic soil ; and the same 
principles may be applied to other like instances. In gen- 
eral, the soils, the materials of which are the most vari- 
ous and heterogeneous, are those called alluvial, or which 
have been formed from the depositions of rivers ; and these 
deposits may be denominated silicious, calcareous, or ar- 
gillaceous ; and in some cases the term salinic may be 
added as a specific distinction, applicable, for example, 
at the embouchure of rivers, where their alluvial remains 
are overflowed by the sea. Such are some of the rules 
for classifying soils laid down by Loudon, in his Encyclo- 
pedia of Agriculture. 

We occupy a soil which may be strictly denominated 
a sandy one. We have dressed some of it with blue clay, 
containing from twenty-five to thirty per cent, of carbonate 
of lime, say at the rate of from twenty to thirty loads to 
an acre, and we are continuing the practice ; being per- 
suaded, from philosophy, as well as experience, that a 
load of blue clay is ultimately of more benefit to our soil 
than a load of barn-yard manure. 

In the application of clays, or clay marl, and most clays 
contain a portion of carbonate of lime, "the great point 
to be obtained," says Professor Emmons, in his Geologi- 
4* 



42 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

cal Report, "is to secure a sufficient degree of fineness, 
that they may be incorporated with the soil, and form, 
strictly speaking, a constituent part of it. To attain this 
object, it is necessary that they should be raised in the 
autumn, and placed in heaps, that they may be exposed 
to frosts and the atmosphere through the winter. To 
assist still further in the process of pulverization, it is bet- 
ter to mix them with barn-yard materials, straw, manure, 
and refuse of any kind, either animal or vegetable. This 
course being pursued with them, they should be spread 
as evenly as possible upon green sward, that they may 
enjoy the further benefits of air, moisture, &c., by direct 
exposure during the season. Besides, the grass, passing 
up through the layer, will assist greatly in producing a 
comminuted state. The succeeding season it is in a state 
to be ploughed in, when it is duly prepared to become a 
constituent part of the soil. It is only in this way that 
the stiff and adhesive clays can be broken up, and pre- 
pared for, and incorporated with, the other earths." 

Our practice differs somewhat from the preceding rec- 
ommendation of Professor Emmons. Our leisure time 
for drawing clay is generally in the winter, and we are 
enabled to obtain it at this season from the clay-banks in 
Albany. We do not place it in piles, or mix it with other 
materials ; but scatter it immediately from the wagon upon 
the sward, as evenly as its adhesive properties will per- 
mit. In this way it becomes better exposed to the ame- 
liorating influence of the weather. The frosts and the 
rains break down the lumps ; and when the clay has after- 
wards become dried, it is readily pulverized with the maul 
or roller, and distributed by the harrow. 

Upon the utility of employing vegetable or animal sub- 
stances, in conjunction with marl, or other varieties of 
calcareous manure. Professor Emmons remarks : — 

" It must be plain that carbonate of lime, or sulphate 
of hme, cannot support vegetation without other materials. 
It appears, however, that a large proportion of the food 
of plants exists in the earth in an insoluble state ; that it 
is by a chemical union of this calcareous matter and this 
insoluble vegetable substance, that it becomes soluble, 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 43 

and fitted for the sustenance of plants in general ; hence 
arises the mutual benefit of combining earths with vegeta- 
ble and animal substances ; and hence, too, the bad prac- 
tice of continuing the mineral manures until the whole of 
the vegetable and animal matter is withdrawn from the 
soil ; for by the increased activity of the growing vegeta- 
ble, the soil is rapidly exhausted of its nutritious matter, 
and it is left comparatively barren, if the agriculturist 
ceases to supply vegetable and animal manure. There 
remains then but one course, that of supplying directly the 
necessary nutriment ; but it is unquestionably better to 
maintain a sufficiency of vegetable matter always in the 
earth, and never suffer a soil to be exhausted or worn out 
by overtaxing its resources." 

We subscribe to the Professor's recommendations, 
though we do not exactly agree with him in his premises, 
that all calcareous matters tend to accelerate the exhaus- 
tion of organic matters in the soil. We think this remark 
will only apply to caustic or quick lime. Davy proved 
that it did not apply to gypsum ; and it is generally con- 
ceded, that calcareous soils are less liable to be exhausted 
than soils that are not calcareous. 

2. Gravelly soils " differ materially from sandy," 
says Sinclair, "both in their texture and mode of man- 
agement. They are frequently composed of small, soft 
stones, sometimes of flinty ones ; but they often contain 
granite, limestone, and other rocky substances, partially, 
but not very minutely decomposed. Gravel, being more 
porous than even sand, is generally a poor, and what is 
called a hungry soil<, more especially when the parts of 
which it consists are hard in substance and rounded in 
form. Gravelly soils are easily exhausted, for the animal 
and vegetable matters which they receive, not being at- 
tracted by the earthy constituent parts of the soil, which 
are seldom sufficiently abundant for that purpose, are more 
liable to be decomposed by the action of the atmosphere, 
and carried ofl* from them by w^ater. 

" Gravelly soils are improved by draining, where they 
are troubled with springs ; — by deep ploughing ; — by mix- 
ing with them coats of clay, chalk, marl, peat, or other 



44 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

earth ; — by frequent returns of grass crops ; — by repeated 
applications of manure ; — and by irrigation, if the water 
be full of sediment, and judiciously applied on a proper 
form of surface." — Code of Jlgriculture. 

Gravelly soils, like sandy ones, if dry, become soon 
heated by solar influence, but they retain the heat longer 
than sands. They are therefore the earliest soils, and 
are most hable to suffer from the droughts of summer. 
Hence the crops upon them should be upon a clover or 
grass ley as often as practicable. 

The crops suited to these soils, are Indian corn, tur- 
nips, clover, barley, rye, peas, oats, and, if a portion of 
the ground is calcareous, good crops of wheat may be 
obtained. When they are cropped with small grains or 
summer-ripening crops, these crops should be sown very 
early. The warmth of the soil will admit of it, and the 
crops may then mature before they are injured by the in- 
tense heats of our mid-summers. If gravelly lands are 
poor, or unfriendly to arable husbandry, they should be 
left in wood, or planted in wood. 

3. Clay soils are tenacious, stiff, very retentive of 
moisture, can only be well worked in favorable seasons, 
and require extra labor in their tillage. If too dry, the 
soil breaks up by the plough in hard clods or lumps. If 
wet, it assumes the appearance of mortar. In either 
case, pulverization, the main object of ploughing, is not 
effected. Yet clay soils yield heavy crops, when they 
are got in in good order. The great expense of tillage, 
however, and the rich herbage which they afford, induce 
many farmers to appropriate them mainly to meadow and 
pasture. 

But clay soils vary greatly in texture, according to the 
quantity of other earths which are commingled in their 
composition ; and they vary in fertihty according to the 
quantity of vegetable matter which they contain, and the 
nature of the subsoil upon which they repose : if the lat- 
ter is retentive, and impervious to water, the soil will be 
wet, cold, and unfriendly to those crops which require 
much heat to bring them to maturity. Clay soils are of 
all intermediate qualities between a dead barren mass and 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 45 

fine clay loams, which are friendly to most farm-crops, 
and most profitable to the owner. 

Clay soils are adapted to the growth of wheat, timothy, 
oats, and, if possessing a dry bottom, to clover and pota- 
toes. When intended for a spring crop, it is advantage- 
ous to plough in the fall, that the frosts may break down 
and pulverize the surface, and that the vegetable matters 
turned under may have the better chance to rot in time to 
benefit the crops. 

There has been recently introduced into Great Britain 
a new and highly advantageous mode of improving clay 
lands for tillage, by means of the subsoil plough. Trench 
ploughing has long been practised, and is analogous, in its 
effects, to trenching with the spade, as practised in Flem- 
ish husbandry. In trench ploughing, a second plough 
follows in the track of the first, and throws a portion of 
the subsoil to the surface. In subsoil ploughing, no por- 
tion of the subsoil is brought to the surface, but merely 
loosened, and pulverized, until, by the admission of air 
and of water, and by their free circulation through it, it 
becomes so improved as to possess the fertility of the 
upper stratum, and is then blended with it. Air and 
water are charged with highly fertihzing properties ; yet 
if either remains long stagnant, it loses its fertilizing pro- 
perties, and becomes prejudicial to vegetable as well as 
animal health and growth. Trench ploughing mixes the 
sub with the surface soil, or rather the latter with the 
former, before the ameliorating influence of air and water 
has operated upon it, and therefore trench ploughing often 
proves prejudicial to the first and second crops. But 
neither trench ploughing nor subsoil ploughing can devel- 
ope all its advantages upon a stiff clay, with a horizon- 
tal surface, without the auxiliary aid of what is termed 
furrow-draining, and of which we shall speak more partic- 
ularly in our chapter upon draining. The effect of sub- 
soil ploughing then, is, to free the soil at all times of an 
excess of water, to fit it for cultivation, at a much earlier 
period in the spring, and to increase its fertility. 

The advantages of subsoil ploughing have been partic- 
ularly illustrated by Robert Laing, Jr., in the Edinburgh 



46 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, who had practised it 
two years. The plough operated to the depth of twelve 
to fifteen inches, and was worked by a three and four- 
horse team. " The field in which the operations were 
commenced," says Mr. Laing, [in 1836,] " consisting of 
ten Scottish acres, was at the time, and during the whole 
operation, so saturated with rain, that the horses' feet 
sunk in the unploughed ground from four to six inches. 
Notwithstanding the disadvantages consequent upon the 
wet state of the field, the results have been of the most 
flattering description. Since the work has been finished, 
[the communication being written two years afterwards,] 
httle or no water has stood upon the surface, and in the 
spring of 1837, this field, which was usually last worka- 
ble upon the farm, from its wetness, was the first ; and 
it had the advantage of land working like loam, when 
compared with the solid soured furrow that was wont to 
be turned up." The land thus managed produced in 
1837, the season after it was subsoil ploughed, 48 bush- 
els of beans the Scottish acre, at least one quarter more 
than it would have yielded had the field not been subsoil 
ploughed, and in 1838, it produced 48 bushels the Scot- 
tish acre. The opinions of Mr. Laing, of the great ad- 
vantages of subsoil ploughing, are amply sustained by the 
experience of many farmers, whose communications have 
appeared in the foreign agricultural periodicals. The 
subsoil plough should, however, be preceded by furrow- 
draining. 

4. Chalk soils, or those containing an excess of calca- 
reous earth, do not much abound with us. Lime is deemed 
essential in a wheat soil ; and if it amounts to two per 
cent, of the tillable surface, it is considered adequate to 
the wants of this crop. Soils derived from primitive for- 
mations seldom contain much if any of this earth, and 
hence the difficulty of raising wheat upon them. If com- 
bined with clay and other earthy and vegetable matters, 
these soils are very productive ; if with sand or gravel, 
they are light and often unfertile. Calcareous earth has 
a strong affinity for putrescent vegetable and animal mat- 
ters, and increases the absorbent power of soils to which 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 47 

it is applied. It corrects the adhesive qualities of clays, 
and augments the absorbent and retentive qualities of sands. 
Hence the advantage of applying lime to clayey, and 
clay-marl to sandy lands. 

The means of ameliorating, or rendering productive, 
a soil too calcareous, are, to mix with it sand or clay 
loams, or pure clay ; or, where the vegetable matter is 
deficient, to blend with it quantities of peat or swamp 
earth, or yard dung. 

Tillage crops are best adapted to calcareous soils, as 
peas, turnips, barley, clover, wheat, and Indian corn. It 
is difficult to bring these soils into permanent pasture or 
meadow. 

5. Peaty soils ^ are those of our swamps and marshes, 
in which vegetable matter exists in excess, in consequence 
of their being habitually saturated with water, which has 
prevented its decomposition . On being thoroughly drained, 
some of these soils, in which the vegetable has been re- 
duced to something hke soft, black powder, or where the 
earths constitute a considerable portion of the surface 
stratum, have become very productive. But where the 
vegetable matters greatly preponderate, or are coarse and 
woody, it has been found necessary, in order to render 
them valuable, after draining, to bring on a decomposition 
by paring and burning the surface, or by the application 
of lime, or barn-yard manure ; and sometimes a good 
dressing of sand, or loam, has induced fertility. The 
cause of.sterihty is not the want of vegetable food, but 
the want of this food in a soluble or cooked state, pre- 
pared for the mouths and the nourishment of plants. 

An author who has successfully explained the nature 
of peat, says Sinclair, has adopted the following classifi- 
cation : 1. Fibrous; 2. Compact; 3. Bituminous; 4. 
Peat mixed with calcareous matter ; 5. with sand or 
clay; 6. with pyrites ; 7. with marine salt. These, he 
contends, difi:er essentially in their composition and chem- 
ical quahties ; and, above all, each species requires a dif- 
ferent treatment, in order to convert it either into a soil 
or into a manure. 

The crops best calculated for reclaimed swamps, or 



48 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

peaty grounds, are oats, potatoes, rye, turnips, carrots, 
and Indian corn ; clover, timothy, red-top, and other 
grasses. When properly drained and subdued, hay crops 
make good returns on peaty lands. By suffering the sec- 
ond crop of grass to rot upon the ground, instead of 
feeding it off as is usual, the Flemings have experienced 
an immense increase of hay the ensuing year, and in this 
way their fenny grounds are converted into permanent 
meadow. The application of gypsum would, no doubt, 
with us, in the interior, tend further to increase the crop, 
and perpetuate fertility. 

If the surface consist of bogs and other living vegeta- 
ble matters, roots, &c., it must either be burnt or carried 
off. The ashes are useful if spread upon the surface, 
and they may also be applied to uplands with great advan- 
tage. Peat earth may be also extensively and profitably 
used for uplands, after it has laid for a season in the cat- 
tle or hog-yard, and been subjected to the tread, and be- 
come mingled with the urine and other excrementitious 
matters of the yard ; or after it has been mingled in com- 
post with lime, ashes, or unfermented stable manure, till 
the process of decomposition or fermentation has com- 
menced. 

6. Alluvial soils are, first, those which have been 
formed by the action of the sea, which are composed 
principally of sand, with but little of organic matter 
except marine shells, such as the great level sandy dis- 
tricts lying along the border of the Atlantic ; and, second, 
those which have been formed from the deposits of riv- 
ers, as upon the Mississippi, Ohio, and upon most of the 
secondary and minor streams of our country. The com- 
position of the latter depends upon the geological forma- 
tion of the country from which the deposits are brought ; 
and the degree of fertility somewhat upon the force of 
the current by which they have been deposited, — the 
coarser matters only being left where the stream is rapid, 
and the finer and richer materials, being specifically light- 
er, subsiding only where the waters become tranquil. 
Hence alluvial soils are various in their character and 
productiveness. Those of the first class are generally 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 49 

sandy, except where the formation is aided by fresh-wa- 
ter streams, in which case clay is found extensively mixed 
with sand, as also marine shells and vegetable matters. 
Of the latter class of alluvial soils, those created by riv- 
ers, the earthy elements are more generally blended with 
a greater admixture of organic matters. Where the de- 
posit has been made by a rapid current, gravel or small 
stones will predominate, and the soil will be comparative- 
ly poor. As the force of the stream abates, sand will 
next subside, w^hile the finer earthy and enriching matters 
will be found deposited upon the borders of still waters. 

Where alluvial grounds are subject to frequent, or to 
annual inundation, and the character of the soil will per- 
mit, they should be appropriated to permanent grass. If 
tilled, the soil is liable to be worn away or injured, and 
the crops destroyed, by freshets ; while, if in grass, the 
deposits made by the waters will tend to keep up fertility. 
If not subject to floods, they may be cropped, as uplands 
of the same character are cropped. 

7. Loams. — '' Where a soil is moderately cohesive, 
less tenacious than clay, and more so than sand, it is 
known by the name of loam. From its frequency, there 
is reason to suppose, that, in some cases, it might be 
called unoriginal soil. At the same time, a constant 
course of tillage for ages, the application of fertilizing 
manures, where necessary, (as clay with sand, or sand 
where clay predominates) will necessarily convert a soil 
thus treated into a loam. 

" Loams are the most desirable of all soils to occupy. 
They are friable ; can in general be cultivated at almost 
any season of the year ; are ploughed with great facility and 
less strength than clay ; bear better the vicissitudes of the 
seasons ; and seldom require any change in the rotation 
adopted. Above all, they are peculiarly well adapted 
for the convertible husbandry ; for they can be altered, 
not only without injury, but generally with benefit, from 
grass to tillage, and from tillage to grass. They should 
not, however, be kept in tillage too long, nor while they 
are in cultivation should two white crops be taken in suc- 
cession. 

5 XV. 



50 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

" Loams are of four sorts : 1. Sandy; 2. Gravelly ; 
3. Clayey ; and, 4. Peaty. 

"1. A sandy soil and a sandy loam, are easily distin- 
guished. A sandy soil is always loose and crumbling, 
and never gets into a clod, even in the driest weather ; 
whereas a sandy loam, owing to the clay which is mixed 
with it, retains a degree of adhesion or cloddiness, after 
wetness or drought, and will not suddenly crumble down, 
without the application of machinery for that purpose. 

" A mellow, rich, crumbling, sandy loam, adhesive 
enough to fear no drought, and friable enough to strain 
off superfluous moisture, if incumbent on a good sound 
subsoil, is the most profitable of all soils, being managed 
with much less expense than any other soil, and raising, 
with advantage, every species of crop that the cHmate 
will admit of. 

" 2. Gravelly loams, where warm, sound, and dry, or 
free from springs, are useful soils, more especially in wet 
seasons and climates. 

^'3. A clayey or stiff loam, is nearly allied to brick 
earth. Though the soil might originally have been poor, 
cold, and hungry, yet, if it be well drained and highly 
manured, it will yield great crops. It is found well 
adapted for the dairy. 

" 4. Peat, in some of its varieties, may likewise be 
converted by culture into a species of black, soft loam, 
and, in that state, it becomes highly fertile and produc- 
tive." — Sinclair's Code of Agriculture. 

It has been already mentioned, that mould containing 
a mixture of animal and vegetable remains, is an essential 
ingredient in all fertile soils ; that the effect of cropping 
is to diminish this fertilizing property ; and that if vegeta- 
ble and animal matters are not returned, to make up for 
the exhausting influence of the crops taken off, the soil 
will ultimately become sterile and barren. 

The offices of the soil are, 1 . To receive and digest the 
food designed for the growing plant. 2. To serve as a 
medium for conveying to the spongioles or mouths of 
plants, the water holding in solution the different sub- 
stances which pass into and nourish them. And, 3, 



EARTHS AND SOILS. 51 

to serve as a basis for fixing tlie roots of plants, and main- 
taining them in an upright position. 

The agents in vegetable nutrition, or growth, are air, 
heat, and moisture. The seed cannot germinate and 
grow, nor the food be prepared nor transmitted to the 
plant, without the united co-operation of these agents. 
Hence the utility of draining, ploughing, pulverizing, &c., 
to render the soil permeable to solar and atmospheric in- 
fluence. But of these matters we shall speak more fully 
in another place. 

Subsoil. 

*' The value of a soil depends much upon the nature 
of the subsoil or under stratum. On various accounts its 
properties merit peculiar attention. By examining the 
subsoil, information may be obtained regarding the soil 
itself ; for the materials of the latter, are often similar 
to those which enter largely into the composition of the 
former, though the substances in the soil are necessarily 
altered, by various mixtures, in the course of cultivation. 
The subsoil may be of use to the soil, by supplying its 
deficiencies, and correcting its defects. The hazard and 
expense of cultivating the surface, are often considerably 
augmented by defects in the under stratum, but which, 
in some cases, may be remedied. 

" Subsoils are, 1. Retentive ; or, 2. Porous. 

"1. Retentive subsoils consist of clay, or marl, or of 
stone beds of various kinds. 

" A retentive, clayey, or tilly subsoil, is highly injuri- 
ous. The land is soaked with water, is ploughed with 
difficulty, and is not in a condition to exert its powers, 
until the cold, sluggish moisture of the winter be exhaled. 
By the water being retained in the upper soil, the putre- 
factive process is of course interrupted, and manures are 
prevented from operating. The plants likewise, from the 
roots being chilled, can make but little progress. Hence, 
when grain is cultivated, it is always of inferior quality, 
and the herbage, when in grass, is coarse. 

" A clayey subsoil, however, may sometimes be of 
material advantage to a sandy soil, by retaining moisture, 



52 EARTHS AND SOILS. 

in such a manner as to supply what is lost by evapora- 
tion, and the consumption of plants. 

" When soils are immediately situated upon a bed of 
impervious rock or stone, they are much sooner rendered 
dry by evaporation, than where the subsoil is clay or 
marl. A stony subsoil, when in a position approaching 
to the horizontal, is, in general, prejudicial, and, if the 
surface soil be thin, usually occasions barrenness ; unless 
the rock should be limestone, and then the soil, though 
thin, is distinguished for its fertility. 

"2. A porous subsoil, if not carried to an extreme, 
is uniformly of great advantage, not only by its admitting 
the fibrous roots of vegetables to extend deeper, in search 
of moisture and nutriment, but also from its carrying off 
all superfluous moisture, which is less perfectly done ar- 
tificially, by the expensive operation of hollow-draining. 

'' Below clay and all the variety of loams, an open 
subsoil is particularly desirable. It is favorable to all the 
operations of husbandry ; — it tends to correct the imper- 
fections of too great a degree of absorbent power in the 
soil above ; — it promotes the beneficial effects of ma- 
nures ; — it contributes to the preservation and growth of 
the seeds ; — and insures the future prosperity of the plants. 
Hence it is, that a thinner soil with a favorable subsoil, 
will produce better crops than a more fertile one, incum- 
bent on wet clay, or cold or nonabsorbent rock. 

" Lands whose substratum consists of clean gravel or 
other sihcious earths, can bear but httle sun, owing to 
their not having a capacity of retaining moisture, and 
their generally possessing but only a shallow surface of 
vegetable mould." — Sinclair''s Code of Agriculture. 

The difficulties resulting from a retentive subsoil are 
likely to be obviated, in a great measure, by improve- 
ments of recent introduction ; — viz., furrow-draining, and 
subsoil ploughing. The first drains off the surplus water 
from the surface soil, and the latter deepens the soil, and 
facilitates the passing off of surplus water. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 53 

CHAPTER VI. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS. 

If we put into the hands of the manufacturer a sack 
of wool, a bale of cotton, or a bundle of flax, it is always 
understood, that these materials, eminently calculated as 
they are to administer to our wants and our comforts, 
must necessarily be wrought by the manufacturer into 
fabrics, and thence be transferred to the tailor, to be 
converted into wearing apparel, before they can be use- 
ful for the great purposes for which they are so admira- 
bly fitted — to protect and embellish the human form. 
When we pass our meats and our vegetables into the hands 
of our wives, daughters, or domestics in the kitchen, it 
is well understood by every one, that before they are fit- 
ted for the primary purposes of hfe — for our nourishment 
and the gratification of the palate — they must undergo 
the culinary processes of cooking. And when we are 
presented with a goodly soil, prolific in all the substantial 
blessings of life — the primary source of our food and 
clothing — we are admonished by every thing around us, 
that if we would enjoy these blessings, in all their purity 
and richness, we must, like the manufacturer, the tailor, 
and the cook, exert those powers and faculties which God 
has given us for this purpose, in rendering this soil what 
it was designed to be, a fountain of temporal blessings. 
The manufacturer, the tailor, and the cook may abuse 
their trusts, and, from ignorance or indolence, spoil or 
waste what it is their interest and their duty to improve ; 
and the husbandman may, by a reckless course, pervert 
the high trust confided to his care, in the management of 
the soil. They have each their assigned duties. The 
means of usefulness are before them. They are endowed 
with capacities for manufacturing the cloth, making up 
the garment, cooking the food, and rendering and keeping 
the soil fertile ; — and their reward, certainly in temporal 
6* 



M IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 

blessings, will very much depend upon the honesty, in- 
telligence, and fidelity with which they acquit themselves 
in their several duties. Every person should consider 
that he comes into the world for some purpose of useful- 
ness ; — that nothing has been made in vain ; — that he ought 
at least to provide for himself and his own ; and that he 
fulfils the high duties of life in proportion as he contrib- 
utes, by his means, his example, and his influence, to 
improve the condition of society at large. And as his 
capacities for improving the soil will depend very much 
upon the developement of the powers of his mind, the 
culture and improvement of the mind should receive the 
early and constant care of the husbandman. 

The natural elements and agents of fertility in the soil, 
are organic matters, which constitute the food of farm- 
crops, and heat, air, and moisture, which are essential in 
the preparation of this food, and to its conversion into 
grain, grass, roots, &c. The first of these is constantly 
accumulating upon the surface, by the death and decay 
of animals and vegetables ; the sun gives the second, the 
atmosphere gives the third, and the clouds the fourth. 
Without the aid of heat, air, moisture, and manure, labor 
and art can do little to render the soil productive ; — with 
them, skill and industry need never exert their powers in 
vain. It is the province of the husbandman to understand 
the laws by which these agents are rendered most sub- 
servient to his use ; and to assist, and in some sort to 
regulate, their influence upon the soil and upon vegetable 
growth. This he does by clearing and cultivation, — by 
rendering the soil permeable to heat and air, and to the 
roots of plants, — by regulating, as far as practicable, the 
supply of moisture, and by furnishing to the soil the ele- 
ments of vegetable food as these become exhausted by 
cultivation. 

The clearing of land for the purposes of husbandry, is 
too well understood, when it is required to be practised, 
to need illustration here. It consists in cutting down, 
burning, or carrying off the timber, brush, and other mat- 
ters which obstruct the plough, and in baring and open- 
ing the soil to the ameliorating influence of the sun and 



PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS. 55 

the atmosphere. Burning the vegetable matter upon the 
surface of new lands, tends to accelerate their fitness for 
producing good crops. It converts much woody or in- 
soluble, into soluble matter ; corrects the natural acidity 
of the soil, and imparts to it much of the benefit which 
results from ploughing and longer exposure. A good 
burn is a pretty certain indication that a good crop will 
follow ; and a bad burn is almost as certain a precursor 
of a bad crop. Hence, in clearing up new lands, the 
timber is generally felled, when the foliage is most abun- 
dant, in June or July ; the fallow is burnt when the fire 
is likely to operate most efficiently, both in destroying the 
vegetable matter upon the surface, and in ameliorating 
the soil, say in August or early in September, and the 
first crop is put in with the harrow or drag soon after. 

We cannot but remark here, that in our zeal to clear 
up^ we generally carry the matter to an unwarrantable 
extreme ; every thing is cut away — the whole surface is 
denuded — stripped of its natural growth. We know that 
old forest-trees will not long bear an open exposure — that 
the winds will prostrate them when deprived of the pro- 
tection of surrounding forests ; yet the young growth, if 
left in clumps and behs upon the bleak borders, the divis- 
ion lines, about the farm-buildings, or upon portions of 
the farm not adapted to ploughland or to meadow, would 
tend ultimately to enhance its value, by the beauty which 
they would impart to the landscape, the shelter and pro- 
tection which they would give to crops and cattle, and 
by the resources which they would give for fuel, fencing, 
and timber. The settler upon new lands may preserve, 
without labor or expense, that which it would cost much 
time and money to produce — that which imparts to old- 
settled districts the highest rural charms, and gives to 
them much of their intrinsic value. To destroy, in this 
case, is but the labor of a day ; to restore, is the work 
of an age. 

After the timber has been removed from forest lands, 
and the first crop put in, the stumps will remain for some 
years, to obstruct, partially, the further operations of 
improvement. The plough cannot yet do its office 



56 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 

thoroughly ; and neither draining nor freeing the surface 
from stones, where these are in the way, can be managed 
with economy, if the new setder has the time and the 
means of doing them. The most approved practice, 
therefore, is, to sow grass-seeds with the first crop, where 
the land can be spared for this purpose, and to leave the 
field in grass, till the stumps, or the greatest portion of 
them, can be readily drawn out with a team, or turned 
out with the plough. When this c^« be done, the other 
operations of improvement, — removing the surface stones 
into walls, draining, manuring, thorough tillage, and alter- 
nation of crops, are more or less necessary, to induce and 
keep up fertihty. But these seldom engage the attention 
of the pioneer in improvement. He considers that he has 
done his part ; or, rather, he does not seem conscious that 
he is capable of going further. He generally goes on 
cropping, without giving manure to his soil, and without 
seeming to know, that the soil is every day becoming less 
and less capable of supplying his wants. The ulterior 
improvements must be generally undertaken by his chil- 
dren or successors, or not undertaken at all. Hence the 
deterioration which has been going on in a great portion 
of our lands from the time of their first setdement. And 
hence the inducement of countless multitudes to emigrate 
to the west, where the natural fertility of the soil has not 
yet been exhausted by a reckless system of husbandry. 

The natural quality and condition of soils have not so 
much influence upon their ultimate products and profits, 
as the good or bad management which they receive. 
Some of the now poor lands in the Atlantic States, were 
once as rich and productive as the now rich lands of the 
Ohio and Mississippi valleys ; and the latter, under the 
treatment which the former have received, will as cer- 
tainly become poor, as that like causes will produce like 
eftects. Nature was as bountiful to the east as she was 
to the west ; and gave to us the same means and capaci- 
ties for improving and enjoying her bounties, as she has 
given to them ; but we have abused her gifts — we have 
disregarded her admonitions — and we are sufi:ering the 
penalty of our disobedience in an empoverished soil. Nor 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE NUTRITION. 57 

can the west expect to escape a similar calamity, if she 
is alike unmindful of her duty and her interest. 

But, though late, we are beginning to see our errors, 
and to atone for them, by adopting a better system of 
farming, — by improving the bounties of Providence. We 
are renovating some of our worn-out lands ; and begin to 
find, that, under a better management, w^e can not only 
restore them to primitive fertility, but greatly increase 
their productive properties. We have begun to call into 
exercise those faculties, long dormant, which have profited 
the manufacturer and the artisan, and to study, and to 
apply to husbandry, those natural laws — that science — 
which must ever govern its operations, wherever its labors 
are wisely applied. Instead of getting a bare reward for 
labor, with a diminution of fertility, as in former times, 
we are augmenting the capacities of the soil, and doubling, 
trebling, and quadrupling its products. We are now de- 
monstrating, that agricultural pursuits are not only the 
most healthy and useful, but that, judiciously managed, 
they are a means of wealth, and of independence and hap- 
piness, which few other employments in life confer. 

To point out some of the prominent features of this 
better system of husbandry — whereby the fertility of the 
soil is progressively improved, the labors of the husband- 
man better rewarded, and the country at large more 
benefited, than under the system pursued by our fathers, 
will be the subject of subsequent essays. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ANALOGY BETWEEN ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE NUTRITION. 

It may not be inappropriate here, with a view of 
bringing the process of vegetable nutrition and growth 
more directly home to the understanding of the unlearned 
reader, to notice some of the analogies which exist be- 
tween the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 

Animal and vegetable matters constitute the food alike 



58 ANALOGY BETWEEN ANIMAL 

of animals and vegetables ; yet these matters nourish 
neither the animal nor the vegetable, until they have un- 
dergone certain preparatory processes, and are reduced 
to a soluble state. Solid substances, so long as they 
remain solid, can benefit neither the animal nor the vege- 
table. 

The stomach is the place where these preparatory 
processes are performed for the animal — the soil is the 
place where they are carried on for the vegetable ; — 
where the food undergoes the first process of decomposi- 
tion, is broken down and rendered solvent, by the gastric 
juices of the stomach, and the moisture and constituents 
of the soil. 

After this process is completed, the nutrient matter of 
the animal food is taken up by the lacteals of the animal, 
and sent to the lungs, for its final preparation to become 
flesh, bone, &c. — and the nutrient matter of the vegetable 
is taken up by the spongioles, or the extreme points of 
the minute root-fibres, and sent to the leaves for final 
elaboration, fitted to nourish and enlarge all parts of the 
vegetable system, and to become grain, grass, roots, &c. 

Leaves are to plants, what lungs are to animals, — the 
organs of respiration. 

The air which is inhaled by the animal in breathing, 
undergoes a material change ; a portion of its oxygen is 
imparted to the blood, with which it comes in contact 
in the lungs, and a portion of the carbon is given off by 
the blood in exchange. By this operation the blood is 
fitted to become living animal matter. The leaves, in 
like manner, are the organs of final elaboration to the 
vegetable blood, or sap. In these, the sap is exposed to 
atmospheric influence ; and it parts with oxygen, and 
retains and imbibes carbon, the principal element in 
vegetable structure, and is thus fitted to become living 
vegetable matter. 

The animal cannot grow, nor long continue to live, 
without the aid of the lungs. The vegetable cannot grow 
without the aid of the leaves, nor continue to live if 
wholly divested of them during the season of growth. 

Heat, air, and moisture are essential in all the processes 



AND VEGETABLE NUTRITION. 59 

of nutrition, vegetable as well as animal — in the stomach 
and In the soil — In the lungs and In the leaves. 

The ordinary temperature of the animal stomach Is 
about 98° — air Is always inhaled by the lungs, and moist- 
ure Is ever present. Hence the digestive process of 
animals Is seldom arrested from the want of these agents. 
The decomposition of vegetable food, In the soil, ceases 
when the thermometer falls below 40°, and is most active 
at the temperature of 80°. Hence vegetable nutrhlon 
does not go on In the winter. In the absence of heat, and 
when most plants are shorn of their elaborating organs. 

Neither lungs nor leaves can perform their office 
healthfully, without access to fresh air ; nor can decom- 
position nor germination take place without air. 

Water Is a necessary solvent in the preparation of an- 
imal and vegetable food, for the delicate mouths of the 
lacteals and spongioles, and Is no less indispensable as a 
medium for transmitting the food to the lungs and leaves, 
and from thence through the animal and vegetable struc- 
tures. 

After the blood of the animal has been perfected in the 
lungs. It Is conducted, by minute arteries, to every part 
of the body, and Is transmuted, or converted, into flesh, 
&c. After the sap has become elaborated or changed 
in the leaves, it Is conveyed. In like manner, to every 
part of the vegetable system, and is transmuted, or trans- 
formed. Into wood, fruit, roots, &c. 

Vegetables, like animals, may be Injured by an excess of 
food ; and when food is too concentrated, or too rich, the 
lacteals and the spongioles become clogged, and unfitted 
to take up and transmit aliment to the lungs and leaves. 

A seed may be compared to an egg. One contains 
the germ of a chick, the other the germ of a plant. Na- 
ture has provided in their envelopes the food proper for 
both, in Infancy, and until both are set free from their 
envelopes, and can provide for themselves. Through 
the agency of heat and air, the chick becomes animated, 
grows, and bursts its shell, and the seed germinates and 
grows, and bursts its case — its roots strike into the soil, 
and Its stem ascends above It — the roots collect food, 



60 ANALOGY BETWEEN ANIMAL 

and the leaves convert it into vegetable blood. In the 
processes of germination and of incubation, light must be 
excluded. 

The elementary matters found in animals and vegetables 
are rarely the same — the animal contains the most nitro- 
gen, the vegetable the most carbon. Lime and iron are 
found in both. 

In the vegetable, as in the animal, the pov/er eiiists of 
throwing ojfF, through their excretory organs, matters, 
blended with their food, not fitted to their wants, or not 
assimilating with the elements of their structure. Plants 
often exhale, or give off, like some animals, a strong 
odor. 

Thus it will be seen, that plants, like animals, are or- 
ganized beings, fed and fattened, like animals, upon vege- 
table and animal — upon organic matters ; and that the 
same care, industry, and intelhgence are required, at 
the hands of the farmer, to grow good crops, that are re- 
quired, in him, to make good mutton or good pork. The 
importance of providing well for the vegetable is greater 
than that of providing for the animal ; for, while the ani- 
mal has locomotive power, and can go abroad for food — 
the vegetable is stationary, and can only send abroad its 
roots for food — and where this is deficient it must be sup- 
plied by art. Besides, to feed the vegetable well, is the 
true way of providing economically for the animal. For 
if the crops are good, the means of rendering the animal 
good are always at command. The animal manufactures 
the crops into meat, milk, and manure — virtually into 
money. But if the crops are bad or deficient, an outlay 
must be made for cattle-food, which will reduce, if not 
eat up, the profits, or the farmer will be correspondingly 
deficient in the raw material which he should turn into 
money. These considerations cannot fail of impressing 
upon the mind of the farmer the importance of keeping 
up and of increasing, by all prudent means, the fertihty 
of his soil. 

In the management of cattle, no decent farmer would 
think o( fattening a score of animals upon the food that 
would barely serve to keep them in a lean condition. If 



AND VEGETABLE NUTRITION. 61 

he wanted to make money, and to realize a profit from 
his beef, his policy would be, to sell off half his lean 
stock, and to fatten his other half upon his supply of food — • 
for what would keep a score, would fatten half that num- 
ber. In this way he would evidently be a gainer. He 
would save the labor of feeding the animals, and have 
converted into marketable meat the food which they would 
have required to keep them lean, and which then, in a 
measure, would have been lost. We go upon this hypo- 
thesis, — if an animal requires 20 lbs. of forage to supply 
daily exhaustion, it cannot increase in flesh upon this bare 
supply; but if the animal can digest 40 lbs. of food per day, 
or double what is necessary to supply absolute want, all 
the additional 20 lbs., or most of it, goes to the increase 
of meat, milk, &c. Now let us apply these remarks to 
crops. A farmer cultivates 20 acres of corn, spreading 
upon each acre five loads of manure. If he gets 30 bushels 
an acre, he thinks he does well. His labor upon each acre 
is worth $15 — or on the whole 20 acres it is worth 
$300 — and he gets 600 bushels of corn, which, at 50 
cents per bushel, just remunerates him for his labor. 
His crop, like the lean animal, is but so so. He gets 
stalks, but comparatively httle corn. Now suppose the 
food that is given to the 20 acres, sufficient just to keep 
in it the breath of life, if this figurative expression is ad- 
missible, is all applied to five acres, which may be term- 
ed stall-feeding — let us see what would be the result. 
We maintain, and our experience for years will warrant us 
in the declaration, that the average product, under this 
system of stall-feeding corn, may be safely stated at 80 
bushels the acre. Thus the product of five acres would be 
400 bushels, and the expense of cukure, at $15 per acre, 
$75 — showing a profit of one hundred and twenty-five 
dollars, or twenty-five dollars an acre. Thus five acres, 
well fed, would be worth $125 per annum more than 
20 acres badly fed. 

The comparisons we have made will be sufficient to 
justify us in suggesting, as rules in farming — 

1. J^ot to work more land than can be well worked 
and well fed ; and, 

6 XV. 



52 FURTHER IMPROVEMENT 

2. J^ot to keep more cattle than the crops of the farm 
will feed and fatten, and than may be made profitable to 
the owner. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FURTHER IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL. 

We have seen, in the preceding chapters, what must 
be apparent to every intelligent observer, that the improve- 
ment of the soil by the first settlers, has generally ter- 
minated in clearing up the land, and in rendering it sub- 
servient to their personal and immediate wants ; and that 
the further progress in its cultivation, has been rather to 
wear it out, and exhaust its fertility, without attempting 
to husband, or even to develope all its resources of wealth. 
We have said, that under a better, a more modern sys- 
tem of husbandry, a considerable portion of our lands, 
hitherto unproductive, may be rendered of great value ; 
that the fertility of the soil may be kept up in lands already 
subjected to culture — and, where they have been empov- 
erished by severe cropping, that they may be renovated, 
and may be made to produce as much and more than 
ever. This better, or more modern system of husbandry, 
of which we speak, is new only comparatively, and the term 
new is used in contradistinction to the old system, which 
is generally adopted in the first settlement of a country, 
in some degree as a matter of necessity ; but which, being 
once established, has been too often persisted in till it has 
empoverished most of the old-settled districts upon our 
Atlantic border, and is already causing indications of 
premature exhaustion and poverty in some districts of 
the west. This deterioration particularly happens in 
countries hke our own, where new and virgin soils are 
constantly inviting to emigration. What we denominate 
the new system of husbandry has long been in operation 
in the valley of the Po, in Italy, and in Flanders ; for 
the last half century it has been gaining strength in Great 



OF THE SOIL. 63 

Britain, and is at present carried to a higher degree of 
perfection in Scotland, probably, than in any other part 
of Europe. It has, moreover, for some time, been 
making its way into the United States, where its followers 
are daily and rapidly increasing. Wherever it has long 
been in operation among us, it has greatly increased the 
products of the soil, and the value of the land ; and yet in 
no district do we beheve that half its advantages have 
been developed. 

In the details of practice under the new system, much 
will depend upon cHmate, soil, and upon the distance and 
demands of the market. Where the market is remote, 
the coarser products must be concentrated in meat, wool, 
butter, cheese, and other articles, of the least expensive 
transportation. Near navigable waters, and in the vicin- 
ity of large towns, hay, roots, fruit, and coarse grains, may 
be more profitably cultivated. The products of the soil, 
as well as the demand for them, must also vary with lati- 
tude. Grain, pulse, roots, grass, and domestic animals, 
are the staples of our northern districts ; rice, cotton, and 
tobacco constitute the principal products of the southern 
part of our Union ; while the torrid zone produces coffee, 
sugar, molasses, &c. Though there are no definite rules of 
practice that will apply to all zones, or all soils, there 
are general principles, and essential requisites, which have 
a general application. In all situations, organic matters 
constitute the food of plants ; in all situations, heat, air, 
and water are the essential agents to prepare and convey 
this food to the mouths of plants, to circulate the vege- 
table blood, to assimilate it with vegetable structure ; 
and in all cases are capital, skill, and industry advanta- 
geously employed in aiding, and in some measure con- 
trolling, the operation of these natural elements and agents 
of vegetable nutrition and growth. 

The modern improvements in husbandry, consist prin- 
cipally, — 

1. In manuring ; 

2. In draining ; 

3. In good tillage ; 

4. In alternating crops ; 



64 FURTHER IMPROVEMENT 

5. In root culture ; and, 

6. In substituting fallow crops for naked fallows. 
Most of these are necessary to good farming, in a far 

greater degree than they have been hitherto considered. 
They are the distinguishing features of the new husband- 
ry ; and as they are practised with more or less intelli- 
gence and fidelity, in that proportion are they likely to 
advance the interests of the farmer, and to profit the 
country. 

We intend to bestow some notice upon each of these 
branches of improvement ; and shall endeavor to explain, 
as we go along, their operation upon the soil, separately 
and conjointly. In the remarks we shall offer, it will be 
our object rather to explain the principles upon which the 
new system is conducted, and which have a common 
application, and to demonstrate their beneficial influence 
in husbandry generally, than to detail the minutise of prac- 
tice, which must, in some degree, be influenced and con- 
trolled by a variety of circumstances. 

If we overstock the farm, that is, attempt to keep 
twice as many cattle upon it, as our pasture and hay will 
support in a thriving condition — every one will tell us 
that we don't work it right ; that our cattle, instead of 
being a profit, under such management, will turn out to be 
a loss ; that we expend our labor and our forage, without 
improving their condition, or obtaining any corresponding 
return. Such is precisely the case with our crops. If 
we but half feed them, they will be meager, and but illy 
repay us for their culture. Ahhough, as we have ob- 
served, every one can see the folly of half starving cattle, 
few seem to perceive the folly of half starving crops, — or, 
if they see, they do not seem inclined to profit from their 
knowledge. There is many a farmer, who, under the 
old system, is scrupulously economical of his cattle-feed, 
knowing that food makes meat, milk, &c., but who is 
perfectly reckless of his manure, the food of his crops ; 
apparently forgetting, that crops are to constitute his cat- 
tle-food, and that they will be abundant and nutritious pre- 
cisely in proportion to the food he gives them, and the 
care which he bestows in their culture. The farmer upon 



OF THE SOIL. 66 

new-settled lands, acts very much like the prodigal son 
of wealth, who finds a treasure in his hands, and who, 
without inquiring how it came there, or how it should be 
preserved, exhausts it recklessly, without regard to duty 
or ultimate benefit. So the farmer, under the old sys- 
tem, seems to have regarded the treasures of the soil 
as a patrimonial inheritance, conferred by Providence, 
for his especial benefit, and to have gone on and wasted 
it, regardless of the interests of society and of his off- 
spring. The consequence has been, that he who has 
wasted the treasures of the soil, like the spendthrift, has 
often thereby consigned his children to poverty and to 
want, or driven them to other employments, by the in- 
fluence of his bad example. 

The first requisite, therefore, for improving the fertili- 
ty of the soil, is to provide plenty of food for the crops 
which it is destined to nourish. The meal-chest must 
be occasionally replenished, or it will not long serve to 
supply the wants of the family. The kine must have 
daily her forage, or her grain, or she will withhold her 
accustomed tribute of milk. The field which yields an 
annual contribution to the husbandman, will become ster- 
ile, if nothing is returned to replace the vegetable matters 
continually carried off. Philosophers have speculated for 
ages, as to what constitutes the food of plants. With- 
out recapitulating the various theories which have had 
their day, upon this point, every farmer can readily re- 
spond to the question, from personal knowledge — that it 
is MANURE — vegetable and animal matters — which con- 
stitute the true food of farm-crops. Mineral, fossil, and 
earthy substances may meliorate the soil, and increase its 
capacities for the healthy developement and maturity of 
plants, or may impart wholesome stimuH to their organs ; 
but vegetable and animal substances, after all, constitute 
mainly the food of plants. Crops are always good, on 
well-prepared ground, where these, in a soluble state, are 
known to abound ; and they are always defective, or 
prove a failure, where these are wanting. Farmers 
should hence regard manure as a part of their capital — 
as money — which requires but to be properly employed, 
6* 



66 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

to return them compound interest. They should hus- 
band it as they would their cents, or shillings, which they 
mean to increase to dollars. They should economize 
every animal and vegetable substance upon the farm, and 
when it has subserved other useful puposes, apply it, by 
mixing it properly with the soil, to the increase of the 
coming harvest — put it to interest, that it may return the 
owner its per centage of profit, in grain, roots, and for- 
age, and ultimately in the increase of meat, and in the 
products of the fleece and the dairy. Every load of 
manure, well applied to the farm, will increase its prod- 
ucts to the value of one dollar. The farmer, therefore, 
who wastes a load of manure, is as reckless and improvi- 
dent, as he who throws away a bushel of corn. Not 
only what is denominated dung, as the contents of the 
catde and hog yards, and the clearings of the stable, — 
the amount of which may be greatly increased, by stalks, 
weeds, vines, and other vegetable matters, — may be trans- 
formed into farm produce — but the rich earth of swamps, 
ditches, and ponds, the leaves of the forest, urine, soap- 
suds, &c., are all convertible to a like use. He that will 
not feed his crops with manure, should not complain if 
his crops fail to feed him with bread. 



CHAPTER IX. 



IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 
MANURES. 

The great sources of fertility to the farm, are the ref- 
use of the crops which they bear, modified by the farm- 
stock, and preserved and judiciously applied by the hus- 
bandman. There is not a vegetable matter grown upon 
the farm, be it considered ever so useless or noxious, but 
will, after it has served ordinary useful purposes, impart 
fertility to the soil, and contribute to the growth of a 
new generation of plants, if it is judiciously husbanded 
and applied. There is not an animal substance, be it 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 67 

solid, llqnld, or gaseous, — be it bone, horn, urine, hair, 
wool, or flesh, or the gases which are generated by the 
decomposition of these matters, — but, with like care and 
skill, may be converted into new vegetable, and after- 
wards into new animal matters. To economize and ap- 
ply all these fertilizing materials is the province and the 
duty of the husbandman. To aid him in this useful labor, 
is the object of this essay. And, 

1st. Of the cattle-yard. This should be located on 
the south side of and adjoining the barn. Sheds, sub- 
stantial walls, or close board-fences, should be erected 
at least on the east and west sides, to shelter the cattle 
from cold winds and storms — the size and the divisions 
to be adapted to the stock which it is intended to feed. 
Excavate the centre, or some other part of the yard, 
placing the earth removed upon the borders, which may 
be ten to fourteen feet broad, or upon the lower sides, 
where there is a descent, so that the liquids will all run to 
the centre, and the borders, which should be left gently 
inclining, will remain dry and firm, for feeding the cattle 
upon. The centre may be from two to five feet lower than 
the borders. The labor may be done principally with 
the plough and scraper, and smoothed off with the shovel 
and hoe. We were employed two days and a half, with 
two hands and a team, in giving a cattle-yard the desired 
shape. When the soil of the yard is not sufficiently com- 
pact to hold water, or is not likely to become so by the 
tread of the cattle, or the puddling effects of the manure, 
the bottom should be bedded with six or eight inches of 
clay, well beat down, and well covered with gravel. 
This is seldom however necessary. Our yards are upon 
a sand loam, and yet the liquids never sink into the earth. 

When the yard is prepared, the first thing done should 
be to overlay the whole bottom with six to twelve inches 
of peat or swamp earth, where it is at command ; and 
where it is not, with earth from ditches, the road-side, or 
other rich deposits. It is then fit for the reception of 
the cattle, and of straw, coarse hay, corn-stalks, and 
other litter of the farm ; and subsequently, as they may 
be gathered, the weeds, potato and pumpkin vines, and 



68 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

Other vegetable matters. These materials will absorb or 
take up the urine and other liquids, and, becoming incor- 
porated with the dung, double or treble the ordinary quan- 
tity of manure. During the continuance of frost, the 
excavation gives no inconvenience ; and when the weath- 
er is soft, the borders afford space for feeding the cattle, 
and for a dry passage to the barn. In this way the urine 
is saved, and the waste incident to rains, &c. prevented. 
The barns and sheds which adjoin the yards, should be 
provided with eve-gutters, which should discharge out- 
side of the yard, so that the waters from the roofs may 
pass off. 

As a further precaution against waste by rains, a cis- 
tern or tank may be sunk near the yard, into which an 
under drain may be made to conduct the liquids, when 
they are likely to accumulate to excess. These liquids 
may be pumped into casks upon carts, and employed to 
great advantage upon grass or arable crops. The Flem- 
ings call these liquids the cooked food of their crops. 

To guard against the wasting influence of the sun in 
summer, a roughly constructed covering, supported by 
posts, may be erected over the central depot. This is 
seldom necessary under our mode of management, which 
requires a thorough cleaning of the yard every spring, 
for the corn, potato, and other root crops. 

The catde should be kept constantly yarded in winter, 
except when let out to water, not only because, if suf- 
fered to run at large, they poach and injure the fields and 
meadows, but because they waste their dung ; and the 
yard should be frequently replenished with fresh litter. 
Upon this plan, from ten to twelve loads of manure may 
readily be obtained, every spring, from each animal win- 
tered in the yard. If the manure from the horse-stables, 
and from stalled neat cattle, be added, the quantity will 
not only be proportionally increased, but the quahty im- 
proved. Whenever the yard Is thoroughly cleaned for 
spring crops, it ought to be again bedded with fresh earth, 
and well littered. 

2d. The stables^ whether occupied by horses or cattle, 
may be made to contribute much to the value of the yard 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 69 

dung, by their urine, which may be conducted into the 
yard by paved or other conduits, leading from the stables 
to the yard. In these, too, litter may be as profitably 
employed to increase the dung, and to promote the health 
and comfort of the animal, as in the yard or open sheds. 
The dung from the horse-stables, if suffered to lie in 
mass, is apt to heat and become jire-fanged^ as it is term- 
ed, which very much impairs its quality. Where there 
are cellars under stables, the dung is thrown down into 
them, and is there protected from the wasting influence 
of the weather ; but even here it is liable to suffer injury 
unless hogs are permitted to root among it, or unless the 
cellar is frequently cleaned out. An approved practice 
is, to scatter the dung from the stables over the cattle- 
yard, which thus retards fermentation, prevents waste, 
and produces a homogeneous mass of excellent manure. 

3d. The hog-pen. Hogs are excellent animals for man- 
ufacturing manure, if they are furnished with the raw ma- 
terial, as peat earth, straw, weeds, &c., and a suitable 
place for conducting the process. The composts of their 
formation are among the cheapest and the best that are 
used upon the farm. The slops of the kitchen, the weeds 
of the garden, the refuse fruits of the orchard, and the 
offal of the farm, are readily converted, by these swinish 
laborers, into meat or manure. Hogs are profitable la- 
borers, and should be employed to as great an extent 
upon the farm as the proprietor's circumstances will per- 
mit. 

4th. The sheep-fold may be made an abundant source 
of fertility to the farm. Economy in its management con- 
sists in giving abundance of fitter, repeated at short inter- 
vals, sufficient to absorb the urine, prevent wasting exha- 
lations, and secure health to the flock — and in applying 
the dung in its recent or unfermented state. 

5th. Composts, These are an artificial mixture of 
vegetable or animal matters, with earthy or mineral sub- 
stances, and may be profitably resorted to in two contin- 
gencies, viz., first, to arrest and detain, for useful purpos- 
es, fertifizing matters which might otherwise be wasted and 
lost — as the urine of animals, or the gaseous matters 



70 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

which are evolved from animal or vegetable substances 
while undergoing fermentation. And, secondly, to ren- 
der soluble, or available as the food of plants, matters 
which are not already so, as swamp earth, woody fibre, 
&c. There is nothing added to the elements of fertility 
by mixing organic with inorganic matters in a compost- 
heap. The advantage in one case is in saving that which 
would otherwise be lost ; and in the other, of rendering 
useful that which is otherwise useless. Earthy matters 
absorb and retain the fertilizing properties of liquids and 
gases, if placed in juxtaposition, or in contact with them, 
and impart them again to growing plants. Thus a fer- 
menting dung-heap will enrich the stratum of earth with 
which it is covered, by the gases which it gives off; thus 
the earthy matters with which we bed our cattle-yards 
become rich in the elements of fertility, by the urine and 
juices of the dung which they there imbibe ; and thus the 
inert, insoluble matter of peat-swamps is rendered soluble 
and enriching, by bringing it in contact with recent ma- 
nure, or other heating and fermenting substance. It is 
the business of the farmer to calculate, upon the foregoing 
principles, and upon the proximity and cost of the mate- 
rials, to what extent composts may be made profitable in 
the economy of tlie farm. To some they are highly use- 
ful ; while to others, like Franklin's whistle, they may 
cost too dear. 

There are several other animal and vegetable sub- 
stances, which every farmer has more or less at com- 
mand, or which he may have at command, besides his 
cattle-dung, which may be made to contribute largely and 
economically, to keep up and increase the fertility and 
products of his lands. We will notice some of them 
briefly in detail. 

1, Bone-dust J or crushed bones. The bones of the 
ox, according to Davy, consist of 51 parts in 100 of 
decomposable animal matter, 37 of phosphate of lime, 10 
of carbonate of lime, and 1.3 of phosphate of magnesia. 
All these matters impart fertility, and are necessary ele- 
ments in the food of plants. They are species of con- 
centrated, or portable manure : concentrated^ inasmuch 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 71 

as two bushels of bone-dust, or crushed bones, properly 
applied, will, upon some soils, do as much good as a load 
of barn-yard manure ; portable, because they may be 
transported at one tenth the expense of their equivalent 
of yard-dung. Bone-dust is comparatively a new ma- 
nure, at least in the United States, though it has been 
long highly prized, and extensively used, in Great Brit- 
ain. Such have been its magic effects in British hus- 
bandry, and &uch the increasing demand for it there, that 
bones to the value of more than $800,000, it is said, are 
annually imported into that country, to enrich the soil, in 
addition to those which the kingdom furnishes ; and it is 
announced in one of her late agricultural periodicals, that 
the use of this manure is actually adding sixteen millions 
of bushels of grain annually to her agricultural products. 
This great source of fertility is now engaging the atten- 
tion of the American farmer, and some mills have been 
put in operation near Boston, New York, Albany, Wa- 
terford, &c., and there is no doubt but the use of this 
fertilizing material will be rapidly and profitably ex- 
tended. We shall speak further of its importance, and 
the modes of applying it, in a chapter appropriated to 
this subject. 

2. Horn-shavings. These consist of the chips and 
refuse of the horns and hoofs of neat cattle, from comb- 
factories. Although more limited in quantity than the 
bones of animals, they may be had in considerable amount, 
and are equal, and, according to Davy, superior, to 
crushed bones, in their fertihzing influence upon the soil. 
From 500 grains of ox-horn Mr. Hatchet obtained only 
1.5 grains of residuum, and not quite half of this was 
phosphate of lime — the residue being decomposable ani- 
mal matter. '' The animal matter in them," says Davy, 
" seems to be of the nature of coagulated albumen, and 
it is slowly rendered soluble by the action of water. The 
earthy matter in horn, and still more that in bones, pre- 
vents the too rapid decomposition of the animal matter, 
and renders it very durable in its effects." — Jig. Cliem. 
With these may be classed the piths of horns, or the resi- 
due of cattle's horns after the comb-maker has taken all 



72 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

that is fit for his use. These may be either cut into 
pieces upon a block, with an axe, so as to be readily- 
buried with the plough, or broken in the bone-mill. We 
have used fifteen wagon-loads of piths in a season with 
great advantage. 

The best way of applying the bone-dust and horn-sha- 
vings and horn-piths, that we have tried, is to keep them 
dry till a short lime before they are wanted — then to mix 
them, in the proportion of a bushel to a load, with un- 
fermented yard or stable dung, to cart to the field, spread 
broadcast, and immediately cover the whole with the 
plough. The action of the dung brings on a decompo- 
sition of the animal matter, without previous preparation, 
and its benefits are imparted to the coming crop. We 
estimate fifteen loads of manure, thus charged with bone 
or horn, equal to twenty-five loads without it. 

3. Poudrette is the contents of privies, dried, and ren- 
dered as inodorous and inoffensive, by chemical process, 
as the common earths. This is another species of con- 
centrated manure nearly as powerful as bone-dust ; more 
operative upon a first crop, but less durable in its effects. 
It is the most efficient, in its immediate effects, of any 
manure we have tried. It is applied at the rate of 40 
bushels or less to the acre, upon all arable crops, to be 
sown broadcast, superficially covered, or placed in the 
hill or drill of hoed crops. It has long been used about 
Paris, has become an article of commerce, and is trans- 
ported to every part of the interior. Manufactories of 
poudrette have been established in the vicinity of New 
York, and the demand for the article increases with the 
supply. Like manufactories will, no doubt, ere long be 
established near all our large cities ; and thus, what would 
be otherwise a nuisance, and the indirect cause of disease 
and death, will be converted into vegetable food, and be- 
come a source of comfort and of wealth. Let not the 
sensitive start at this suggestion — the choicest dehcacies 
of the table come from a nauseous mass of animal and 
vegetable putrefaction ! 

4. Urette is animal urine, absorbed and rendered dry 
by mixture with calcareous earth. It possesses the like 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 73 

fertilizing virtues as poudrette, and is applied in a similar 
way, and with very similar effect. 

5. Woollen rags, and the flocks and sweepings of wool- 
len-factories, constitute a highly-concentrated manure, and 
are procured in considerable quantities at the woollen-mills. 

6. Fish are converted into a valuable manure, and are 
a main dependance of fertihty on some parts of Long 
Island, and other districts near the margin of the sea. 
These are most economically used in the form of a com- 
post — the earth with which they are blended absorbing 
the volatile parts, and permitting a more equal distribu- 
tion of the fertilizing matters upon the soil. 

7. Sea-iveedj or sea-drift, which is so often thrown 
upon the beach in immense quantities during a storm, is 
beneficially employed as a manure, not only on account 
of its vegetable, but of its saline properties. It is em- 
ployed in composts, in litter for cattle-yards, or is ploughed 
in in a green state. 

8. Peat earth, or swamp muck, is vegetable food, in 
an insoluble state, and requires only such a chemical 
change as shall render it soluble, to convert it into an ac- 
tive manure. This change may be effected in the cattle- 
yard, in the compost-heap, or by admixture with alkaline 
substances, as lime, ashes, &c. 

This earth is generaly insoluble in the places where it is 
deposited, especially when saturated with water. It some- 
times is rendered soluble by thorough draining, and by 
the admixture of sand or loam, and always by being 
brought in contact with fermenting animal or vegetable 
matters. 

9. Peat ashes are valuable as a top dressing for grain 
or grass, and particularly for young clovers. They how- 
ever differ much in their fertilizing properties, according 
to the proportion of sulphate of lime and other salts which 
they contain. The peat or bogs should be burnt in stacks 
or piles, the fire being kindled in the centre, where dry 
combustibles should be placed for the purpose ; and 
when the fire has got firm hold of the peat earth or bogs, 
it should be prevented from breaking out, by the occasional 
addition of fresh turf or bogs to the outside. The more 

7 XV. 



74 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

the air can be kept out, and the smoke kept in, the more 
abundant and fertilizing will be the ashes. 

10. Wood ashes are beneficial to most soils, on account 
of the potash and other salts which they afford. Leached 
ashes are in many cases beneficial, particularly within the 
influence of the marine atmosphere ; and it has been 
shown by a writer in the Cultivator, that their unvarying 
efficacy upon the borders of the sea, is owing principally 
to their combining these with the muriate of soda, or 
common salt. An admixture of a small portion of salt, 
or salt water, with leached ashes, in the interior, gave to 
them highly-enriching qualities ; whereas, apphed without 
the salt, they imparted little or no benefit. On many 
lands in the interior, however, the application of leached 
ashes has induced an increase of fertility. 

In short, there is no animal or vegetable matter, upon 
the farm or elsewhere, but is convertible into farm-crops, 
when properly managed. 

As the grain, roots, and forage destined to feed the 
family and the farm-stock, require the best care of the 
husbandman, to prevent waste and injury, so does the 
manure which is destined to feed his crops. Fermenta- 
tion, if suffered to exhaust its powers upon yard-dung, 
materially lessens its value ; the wind and the sun dissi- 
pate its virtues, and rains leach it and waste its fertilizing 
powers. The same care given to the food of vegetables, 
which should be given to the food of animals, will be 
richly recompensed in the increased product of the har- 
vest. 

If we contrast the common with the improved practice, 
in regard to the management of dung, we shall readily 
see, that the difference, in enriching the soil, is incalcula- 
bly great — enough to induce poverty in one case, and to 
enrich the proprietor in the other. Even the best class 
of our farmers, who are deemed judicious managers, sel- 
dom avail themselves of half the resources of fertiHty 
which their farms or neighborhoods afford — not half that are 
put in successful requisition by the farmers of Great Brit- 
ain and Flanders. Besides, what manure they do make, 
is badly husbanded : they suffer the gaseous portions to 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 75 

waste in the air, instead of being absorbed by, and enrich- 
ing the soil ; and the hquids to course down hill to the 
highway or some neighboring brook. But what shall we 
say of the mass of our farmers ? We have travelled hun- 
dreds of miles to the west, and seen great quantities of 
manure, in the yards and about the barns, often the ac- 
cumulation of years, seemingly considered by the owners 
rather as an encumbrance, or a nuisance, than as a source 
of fertility and wealth. 

In the new system of husbandry, the farmer's profits 
are in a measure graduated by the quantity of manure he 
is enabled to produce from his farm. In the fourth vol- 
ume of the Cultivator, estimates are given, from high au- 
thorities, of the amount produced upon farms in Great 
Britain. Doctor Coventry, Agricultural Professor in the 
Edinburgh University, gives four tons of manure to each 
acre of straw manufactured by farm-stock. A Berwick- 
shire farmer, quoted by Sir John Sinclair, obtained four 
cart-loads, of 30 to 35 cubic feet each, from every ox 
wintered upon straw and turnips. Meadow land is stated 
to produce from four to six tons of manure to the acre ; 
and the available sources of fertility upon a farm, if the 
products are consumed by the stock on the farm, are esti- 
mated to be sufficient to give a full supply of manure once 
in every course of the four-year system of husbandry. 
Arthur Young, with six horses, four cows, nine hogs, and 
suitable litter, made 118 loads of dung, 36 bushels each, 
in a winter. Cattle fed with turnips are computed to 
make double the manure that those do which are fed upon 
dry fodder alone ; and an acre of turnips, with an adequate 
quantity of straw, has produced sixteen cart-loads of dung. 
It will be readily perceived, that by this mode of man- 
agement, ample means may be provided for keeping up 
the fertihty of the soil, when put under the four-shift 
system of husbandry. 

What now is the common quantity of manure, under the 
old system ? Taking our State, or our country at large, 
we are confident the average quantity which is judiciously 
applied, will not amount to one load an acre, and we are 
doubtful if it will amount to half a load. Can it be won- 



76 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY 

dered, then, that under such reckless management, of 
returning to the soil only a quarter, or an eighth, of 
what we take from it, of the food of plants, our lands 
should continue to grow poor, till they no longer yield a 
reward to culture ? The cultivated lands in New York 
are estimated at eight millions of acres. On the suppo- 
sition that one half of these are appropriated to tillage 
and meadow — and this is a low estimate — we might pro- 
duce, and apply annually, under the new system of hus- 
bandry — and we ought to do so — sixteen million tons of 
manure, worth, to the country, at a low computation, six- 
teen millions of dollars ; — whereas, we now produce, un- 
der the old system, certainly not more than four millions 
of tons — thereby suffering an annual loss, independent of 
the certain and constant diminution in the product and 
value of our lands, of twelve millions of dollars, in the 
single item of manures ! This is not a visionary specula- 
tion — it is sober truth — and we ask any intelligent man, 
to show, from facts, a less favorable conclusion. 

But, to relieve this sombre picture, so discreditable to 
American husbandry, we are happy to have it in our pow- 
er to cite some illustrious exceptions to the conclusions 
we have drawn ; which go to prove both our general neg- 
lect in this branch of rural economy, and the vast benefits 
which it is capable of dispensing when duly attended to. 
Among other notable examples which might be mentioned, 
we state, on the authority of the Essex Committee on 
Manures, that in Plymouth county, when a premium was 
to be given to the man who made the greatest number of 
loads of manure on his farm, the prize was awarded to a 
farmer who made 798 loads — the lowest competitor claim- 
ing for 350. William Clark, Jr., of Northampton, with 
an average stock of 8 oxen and cow^s, 3 horses, and 8 
hogs, made in a year 920 loads. A friend of the writer 
on Staten Island, who has a stock of some 20 or 30 cat- 
tle, assured us that he could or did make, from his cattle, 
peat earth, peat ashes, and sea-weed, enough manure to 
thoroughly dung more than one hundred acres of his farm 
annually. 

The cases we have cited will serve to show, that a 



ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE MANURES. 77 

vast improvement may be made in this branch of farm 
economy. 

We will merely remark here, in regard to the applica- 
tion of manures, that if used in an unfermented state, they 
should be buried with the plough, at least so deep as to 
remain saturated with moisture, a material agent of de- 
composition, and applied to a hoed, or autumn-ripening 
crop. If used in a rotted state, they may be blended 
with the surface, and applied to a summer-ripening crop. 
We will give our reasons for this practice. Manure fer- 
tilizes in two ways — by the gaseous matters which are 
evolved in fermentation, and which rise ; and which, be- 
sides constituting vegetable food, operate in the soil, like 
yest in dough, rendering it porous, and permeable to heat, 
air, and moisture ; and by liquid matters, which sink. If 
used before it has parted with its gases, manure should 
be buried, that the incumbent soil may imbibe the gaseous 
elements. If the manure has been rotted, it has parted 
with its gaseous matters, and all its remaining fertilizing 
properties are liable to be carried down by the rains — 
hence this may be deposited near the surface. Again, 
fresh manures, even in a liquid form,* induce a rank 
growth of herbage ; but they do not produce good plump 
seed. Hence, if apphed to common small grains, they 
cause a great growth of straic at the expense of the grain; 
fermentation being most rapid at mid-summer, when the 
seed, and not the straw, requires the food. But the au- 
tumn-ripening crops, as corn, &c., are in that state, at 
mid-summer, which requires strong food to perfect their 
stalks and leaves ; and the fermentation of the manure 
has subsided before the grain matures in autumn. Fos- 
sil manures, as lime, marl, and gypsum, are apphed upon 
the surface, or buried superficialfy, because their disposi- 
tion is to settle down, and they give off no gaseous food. 

* Colonel de Courteur (see Farmers' Magazine) tried stable manure 
and liquid manure, the latter diluted, upon his wheat. The grain 
tillered much, or gave a great growth of straw and grass ; but the 
product in grain was diminished. When the liquid manure was ap- 
plied a second time, by being poured upon the growing wheat, the 
straw was very rank ; the plants produced only a few ears of wheat, 
and those were very defective in grain. 



78 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

CHAPTER X. 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY MINERAL MANURES. 

Although animal and vegetable matters are consider- 
ed the true food of plants, as they are of animals, yet the 
plant, like the animal, is benefited by certain mineral and 
saline substances, which seem necessary to both, as stim- 
uli or condiments, and which act either upon the food, in 
fitting it for use, upon the organs of digestion or nutrition, 
or become essential in giving form, strength, and firmness 
to the animal and vegetable structure. Thus the bones 
of animals are formed from the lime and phosphorus 
which are taken in with the food. Without lime, the 
eggs of fowls would be without a shell. All the earths 
enter more or less into the animal and vegetable structures, 
and into the seeds of the latter. Lime is found in the 
wheat, gypsum in the clover, sulphur in the turnip, silex 
in the stalks of Indian corn, and most of the cereal gras- 
ses. Mineral substances are also beneficially employed 
in improving the texture of the soil, and in fitting it to 
promote the growth of plants. 

The most important of the mineral applications is lime. 
Lime benefits in two ways ; first, in its caustic state, 
deprived of its carbonic acid by fire, it dissolves vegeta- 
ble fibre, and converts it into the food of plants ; and at 
the same time, by forming new chemical compounds with 
matters that are soluble, it prolongs the nutritive action 
of soft vegetable and animal substances beyond the time 
in which they would have acted, if they had not entered 
into a combination with it. Hence, caustic, or quick- 
lime, should not be apphed with common dung, but to 
soils abounding in peaty, fibrous, and other insoluble, inert 
vegetable matters. And secondly, in its mild state, or 
as a carbonate, it improves the mechanical texture of 
sands and clays ; rendering the first more compact and 
more retentive of manure and moisture, and the latter 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 79 

more porous, and more permeable to the dews, to air, and 
to heat. Upon all soils which do not contain it natural- 
ly, mild hme may be applied with certain ulterior benefit. 

Lime, says Professor Low, may be applied to land in 
different ways, and at different periods. 

''1. It may be laid on the surface of land which is in 
grass, and remain there until the land is ploughed up for 
tillage, even though this should be several years after- 
wards. The lime, in this case, quickly sinks into the 
soil, and, acting upon it, prepares it for crops when it is 
again tilled. 

"2. It may be spread upon the ground, and buried 
even by the plough, just after a crop of any kind has been 
reaped. In this case it prepares the soil for succeeding 
crops. 

"3. It may be spread upon the surface even where 
plants are growing. This practice, however, though some- 
times convenient, is very rarely to be imitated. 

"4. It maybe, and is most frequently, applied du- 
ring the season in which the land is in fallow, or in prep- 
aration for what are termed fallow crops. 

"5. It may be mixed with earthy matter, particularly 
with that containing vegetable remains, [the ligneous, 
woody and peaty ;] in this case it forms a compost." — 
Low^s Elements^ &c. 

Quicklime adds nothing to the elements of fertility ; it 
merely digests these elements, or renders them soluble. 
Hence its tendency is to exhaust these elements in the 
soil, and to induce ultimate sterility, unless organic mat- 
ters are returned to it. Lime will produce no benefit to 
soils in which there are no organic matters. 

The quantity of Hme to be applied to the acre, will 
depend upon the quality of the soil ; the poorer the soil, 
the less should be the application. In Britain, from 100 
to 300 bushels are appHed. In the United States, from 
50 to 120 bushels ; and the dressings may be repeated, 
according to circumstances, in every four to ten years. 
In France, applications of from three to ten bushels are 
made annually, with the best effect. Lime is inoperative 
upon all soils containing an excess of water. It eradi- 



80 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

cates sorrel, corrects the acidity of soils, neutralizes the 
oxydes of iron, tends to prevent rust in the small grains, 
and to give to wheat a fine, clean straw and berry. 

Quicklime, in its ultimate, and carbonate of lime, in 
its immediate effects, are beneficial, as we have stated, in 
all soils in which it is deficient. Two per cent, of car- 
bonate of lime, in the tillage stratum of a soil, is deemed 
sufficient, by Mr. Ruffin, for all tillage crops; but it should 
be borne in mind, that this earth, more than any other, is 
exhausted by cropping ; and that when it is supplied arti- 
ficially, it will require to be repeated at intervals of four 
to eight years. 

The following rules for the application of quicklime 
are given in British husbandry, and will be found gener- 
ally apphcable to our practice. 

''1. Before application of lime, the land should be 
thoroughly drained and laid dry. 

"2. It may be carried on when the teams are most at 
leisure ; but summer is the best season ; and it never 
should be laid upon the land except in dry weather. 

"3. It should be laid on while in a powdery state, and 
kept as near the surface as possible, as then best adapted 
to mix intimately with the soil. 

"•4. It may be applied either quick or effete ; but if 
in the former state it will have more effect in cleansing 
the land, and a less quantity will serve the immediate pur- 
pose. It should however be carted upon the land as soon 
as possible, and spread directly before the plough, let- 
ting that follow so quickly, as that the body of the hme 
shall be slaked in the soil ; and it must be cautiously ap- 
plied to light soils. 

''5. As it has a tendency to sink into the ground, and 
it is important to preserve it near the surface, it should 
be ploughed with a shallow furrow. 

" 6. When found, after a few years, in lumps, and 
much below the surface of the land, it should be ploughed 
up and repeatedly harrowed, so as to insure its entire 
mixture. 

"7. Clays and strong loams require a full dose ; but 
for sands and other light soils, a much less quantity of 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 81 

lime will serve, each in proportion to the strength of the 
lime and the land. 

"8. If the land be not supplied with the same quantity 
of putrescent manure that is usually laid upon other soils, 
the crops will suffer ; and if it be not then laid down to 
grass for a long series of years, it will be worn out and 
exhausted." 

We add the following from Professor Low : — 

" Lime may be laid on the surface of land when it is 
in grass, and remain there till the land is ploughed up for 
tillage, even though this should be several years afterwards. 
The hme, in this case, quickly sinks into the soil, and, 
acting upon it, prepares it for crops when it is again 
tilled." 

" It may be spread upon the surface even when plants 
are growing. This is, however, rarely to be imitated." 

Lime is most extensively used in East Pennsylvania, 
of any part of the United States. The writer of this 
essay addressed a letter to Dr. Darlington, of Chester 
county, propounding certain queries as to the mode of 
applying lime, quantity apphed, &c. in his neighborhood ; 
to which the Doctor kindly returned the subjoined answer, 
which will probably afford the best guide to the Ameri- 
can farmer, in the application of this mineral, that can be 
found. 

Dear Sir, — I proceed, with great pleasure, to furnish 
you with such facts and remarks as my opportunities for 
observation have enabled me to offer. With a view to 
render the answers more explicit and satisfactory, I will 
annex them, seriatim, to your several inquiries. 

Query 1, '' Upon ichat lands does lime operate most 
beneficially, — ^Ist. In regard to geological formation, — 
as primitive, transition, secondary, and alluvial ? 2d. 
In reference to the soil, — as sand, clay, lime, and vege- 
table matter 9 Sd. As indicated by natural growth of 
timber and plants ?" 

Answer. My residence has always been in a primitive 
region, and my observations very much limited to agri- 
cultural processes in soils upon that formation. The pre- 



82 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

vailing rock here is gneiss, with occasional beds, or 
veins, of hornblende, greenstone, and sienite. About 
five miles to the north of us is the great valley of transi- 
tion hmestone, stretching from northeast to southwest, 
and immediately on the northern side of this valley, run- 
ning parallel with it, is a broken ridge of hills, formed of 
mica slate, — with beds of serpentine rock and hornblende, 
on the side next to gneiss rock, on the southeast. 

Over the gneiss rock, and among the hornblende, the 
soil is generally a still loam ; and I think the best effects 
are perceptible from a given quantity of lime. On the 
soil overlaying the schistose rock, the good effects of 
hme are sufficiently obvious, under the management of 
skilful farmers ; but the benefits seem to be less perma- 
nent. 

On the serpentine rock the soil is extremely sterile ; 
and neither lime nor barn-yard manure can be used with 
much advantage. In the limestone soil of the great val- 
ley, where one would suppose it was already redundant, 
lime is used with advantage ; and much heavier dressings 
are put on, than in the adjacent districts. I cannot fur- 
nish the rationale of this practice, but I believe the fact 
is established, that more lime is required to produce the 
same beneficial effect on soils resting on limestone rock, 
than upon those overlaying gneiss, and perhaps some other 
primitive rocks. 

I have had no opportunity to witness the effect of lime 
upon secondary, and strictly alluvial, formations ; but 
the circumstances have led me to suspect, that the same 
quantity of lime would not be so signally beneficial in 
secondary, as it is in certain primitive formations. 

Lime undoubtedly has a good effect in soils which are 
sandy, even where sand predominates ; but I believe its 
mehorating properties are most conspicuous in a clay 
soil, — or rather in a stiff loam. A good proportion of 
decomposed vegetable matter adds greatly to the benefi- 
cial effects of lime ; and hence our farmers are desirous 
to mingle as much barn-yard manure as possible with their 
lime dressings, — and to get their fields into what is called 
a good sod, or turf, — full of grass roots. Then a dres- 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 83 

sing of lime has an admirable effect.* The soils indica- 
ted by a natm-al growth of black oak, {quercus tinctoria^) 
walnut, {juglans nigra^) and poplar, [liriodendron^] — 
and those in which such grasses as the poas and festucas 
best flourish, are generally most signally benefited by the 
use of lime. In short, I may observe, that lime has been 
found more or less beneficial in every description of soil 
in this district. 

It is most so on hilly or rolling lands, where clay pre- 
dominates, — less permanently so among the mica slate, — 
and least of all on the magnesian rocks. The soil on 
these last is rarely worth cultivating. 

Query 2. " What quantity of lime is applied to the 
acre, upon different soils, at a single dressing, and during 
a period of years V* 

Answer. The quantity of lime, per acre, which can 
be used advantageously, varies with the condition and 
original character of the soil. Highly-improved land will 
bear a heavier dressing than poor land. On a soil of 
medium condition the usual dressing is 40 to 50 bushels 
per acre. A deep, rich soil, or limestone land in the 
great valley, will receive 70 to 80 (and I am told even 
100) bushels to the acre with advantage. On very poor 
land, 20 to 30 bushels per acre is deemed most advanta- 
geous to commence with. It is usually repeated every 
five or six years — i. e., every time the field comes in turn 
to be broken up with the plough ; and as the land improves 
the quantity of hme is increased. The prevaihng prac- 
tice here is, to plough down the sod, or ley, in the fall 
or early in the spring — harrow it once — and then spread 
the lime (previously slaked to a powder) preparatory to 
planting the field with Indian corn. Every field, in rota- 
tion, receives this kind of dressing ; and as our farms are 

* The yard manure is not usually mingled with the lime, when the 
latter is first applied. The practice is, to lime the Indian corn ground, 
prior to planting that grain, on the inverted sod, — and, the ensuing 
spring, to manure the same field for a barley crop, — or, to reserve the 
manure until the succeeding autumn, and apply it to the wheat crop. 
It is not well settled which of these is the better practice. Each has 
its advocates ; but it is most usual to reserve the manure for the 
wheat. 



84 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

mostly divided into about half a dozen fields, the dressing 
of course comes once in six years, more or less, accord- 
ing to the number of the fields. Some enterprising farm- 
ers however give their fields an intermediate dressing, on 
the sod, after they come into grass, which I consider an 
excellent practice, — tending rapidly to improve the condi- 
tion of the land. 

Q,uery 3. '■'• Is it applied in a caustic or in an effete 
state ?" 

Answer. It is usually obtained in a caustic state from 
the kiln, — deposited in heaps in the field where it is to 
be spread, and water, sufiicient to slake it to a powder, 
is then thrown upon it. As soon as slaked it is loaded 
into carts, and men with shovels distribute it as equally 
as possible over the ground. It is generally considered 
best to put it on the ground while it is fresh, or warm^ as 
the phrase is ; and it is certainly easier to spread it equally 
when in a light, pulverized state, than after it gets much 
wet with rains. I am inclined to think, too, it is better 
for the land when applied fresh from the kiln. 

Qiteri/ 4. " To lohat crops is it most advantageously 
applied, and at what season V 

Answer. It is usually applied, as already intimated, 
to the crop of Indian corn, in the spring of the year — 
say the month of April. Occasionally it is applied prepar- 
atory to sowing wheat in autumn. When used as a top 
dressing, on the sod, it is generally apphed in the fall — 
say November. The prevailing impression is, that it is 
most advantageously applied to the Indian corn crop ; 
and hence the general practice. But the truth is, it is 
highly advantageous at any, and at all seasons ; and our 
shrewd old farmers have a saying — " Get your lime on 
for your corn, if you can, — but be sure to get it on the 
land some time in the year.'''' 

Query 5. " How is it incorporated with the soil — by 
the plough or the harrow ? and is it applied in any case 
as a top dressing to grass and to grains, and with what 
effect V 

Answer. As already stated, after the sod is ploughed 
down for Indian corn, it is usually harrowed once to 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 85 

render the surface more uniform. The hme is spread 
as equally as possible over the field, and then the ground 
is well harrowed in different directions, in order to in- 
corporate the lime with the soil. Soon afterwards the 
field is marked out and planted with corn. The plough 
is rarely if ever used for the purpose alluded to. I have 
mentioned above, that lime is occasionally used as a top 
dressing for grass. It appears to be particularly beneficial 
to that crop ; and answers extremely well when applied 
in that manner. The practice of applying it to Indian 
corn as above related, is, however, chiefly followed ; and 
the appHcation of a dressing to each field, in rotation, 
causes as much labor and expense every year, as our 
farmers generally are willing to incur. Lime has rarely 
been used as a top dressing to grain crops within my 
knowledge. 

Q,uery 6. '' What is the ordinary cost per acre of 
liming, and the relative profits, in increased products of 
a period of years ?" 

Answer. Quickhme, at the kilns, usually costs twelve 
and a half cents a bushel. The farmers generally haul 
it with their own teams ; and the additional expense de- 
pends, of course, materially upon the distance. It is fre- 
quently hauled by them a distance of eight, ten, and even 
twelve miles. The average, perhaps, is about five or 
six miles. It is dehvered to me by the lime-burners, (a 
distance of near six miles,) at 18 cents a bushel. At 
the rate of 40 bushels to the acre, the cost, at 18 cents, 
would be $7,20 per acre. It is difficult to estimate, with 
precision, the relative profits in increased products. But 
I can safely say, from my own experience, on a small 
farm of middhng quality, that two dressings of hme at the 
above rate, in the course of eight or nine years, have 
more than trebled the products of the land to which it 
was applied, both in grain and grass. It is to be under- 
stood, however, that the system of ploughing only so 
much ground as could be well manured was adopted at 
the same time. I may also observe, generally, that the 
farmers of this district, (who are shrewd economists,) are 
so well convinced of the beneficial efl^ects of liming, that, 
8 XV. 



86 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

costly as its application seems to be, they are unanimous 
in sparing no effort to procure it. Lime has been found 
pecuharly favorable to the growth of pasture, when the 
farm is otherwise well managed ; and as our farmers are 
mostly in the practice of feeding cattle, they resort to 
liming as an indispensable auxiliary to successful grazing. 

Query 7. " /5 lime applied with yard manures, or 
earthy composts , and with what results ?" 

Answer. I have already intimated that vegetable mat- 
ters, and especially yard manures, are highly important 
in conjunction with lime. Both are valuable even when 
used separately ; but when combined, the effect is most 
complete. If to this be added the great secret of good 
farming, — viz., to plough only so much ground as can be 
well manured, — the state of agriculture may be considered 
nearly perfect. 

Lime is in some instances added to earthy composts, 
preparatory to distribution in the fields ; but it is doubtful 
whether the extra labor of this method is compensated by 
any pecuhar advantages. It is not generally practised. 

Query 8. " /^ powdered limestone {carbonate of lime) 
applied to soils ; and, if so, does it induce fertility other- 
wise than by mechanically ameliorating their texture V 

Answer. No instance of powdered limestone being 
appHed to soils has come under my notice. I can, there- 
fore, form but a very imperfect opinion of its utility. If 
it were even as beneficial as quicklime, (which I doubt,) 
I apprehend it could not be procured and applied with 
less cost and labor. 

Query 9. '^ On what soils, if any, in your neighbor- 
hood, is lime found to be inoperative as a fertilizing ap- 
plication ; and the cause of its failure V 

Answer. There is no soil in this district deemed worthy 
of cultivation, on which lime is wholly inoperative as a 
fertihzer. On some sterile, slaty ridges, and on magne- 
sian rocks, it has indeed but a shght effect ; and even 
the benefits of barn-yard manure are very transient. In 
low, swampy grounds, also, unless they are previously 
well drained, the labor of applying hme is pretty much 
thrown away. There seems to be something in the con- 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 87 

stitution of magnesian rocks peculiarly unsulted to the 
growth of the more valuable plants. Indeed, there are 
patches of the soil perfectly destitute of all vegetation. 
Repeated attempts have been made to cultivate the bases 
of our serpentine banks ; but neither lime nor manure 
will enable the farmer to obtain more than a light crop of 
small grain. Neither clover nor the valuable grasses can 
be induced to take root and flourish in the ungenial soil. 
It is, therefore, almost universally neglected. 

I have thus endeavored (in rather a desultory manner, 
I confess) to answer your queries according to my best 
judgement. If what I have furnished shall in any degree 
tend to make the subject better understood, I shall be 
amply gratified. 

With great respect, I have the honor to be, your 
obedient servant, Wm. Darlington. 

Jesse Buel, Esq., Cor. Sec^y^ ^c. 

Lime has been long used in the agriculture of Flanders 
and the Netherlands, and is, according to M. Puvis, ap- 
plied at intervals of ten or twelve years, at the rate of 
about 45 bushels to the acre. It is also applied in com- 
post, and the older the compost the better it is considered ; 
and the benefits of this application last from 15 to 20 
years. In some parts of France, according to the same 
authority, it is given, every three years, at each renewal 
of the rotation, at the rate of about 11 bushels to the 
acre, in a compost, with seven or eight parts of mould to 
one of lime. This compost is used upon land previous 
to the autumn sowing, with an equal proportion of farm- 
yard dung. M. Puvis recommends this practice for gen- 
eral adoption. 

After all that has been said and written upon the ap- 
plication of lime for agricultural purposes, no definite 
rules can be laid down for its general application. Much 
depends upon the quality and condition of the soil. In 
some districts quickhme has proved of vast benefit ; 
while in others it has been in a great measure inoperative. 
Every farmer should experiment with it first upon a limited 
scale, and extend its use as he finds its benefits will war- 



88 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

rant. Effete lime and marl are more certain in their 
effects, when judiciously employed. They seldom fail 
to benefit any soil not highly charged with calcareous earth. 

In the application of all mineral manures, of concen- 
trated animal manures, and even of yard-dung, upon which 
fermentation has exhausted its powers, one rule applies, 
viz., that they should be blended, as intimately as is prac- 
ticable, with the surface of the soil, in preference to being 
buried deep with the plough. The tendency of all of 
them is to sink. 

Lime is not only an alterative, rendering a cohesive 
soil more porous, and a porous soil more compact, but it 
changes and neutralizes many matters that often abound 
in soils, that are deleterious and hurtful to farm-crops ; — 
as, for instance, some of the acids, and the oxydes of iron 
and other salts. In this way it destroys sorrel, and often 
converts a barren ferruginous soil, charged with the oxydes 
of iron, into one of fertility. The prevailing opinion is, 
that Ume soon loses its caustic quality, however fresh 
from the kiln, when it is either spread upon the surface 
of a field, or buried in the soil ; and that its principal 
benefits to agriculture result rather from its use as a car- 
bonate, than from its caustic properties. 

Gypsum, or plaster of Paris, is lime combined with 
sulphuric acid. Common limestone is called carbonate 
of hme, from the union of carbonic acid with the base. 
Gypsum is called sulphate of lime, from the acid which 
it contains. This substance exists in soils, is found in 
plants, and is consequently contained in manures ; yet it 
is applied to certain crops, upon dry, sandy, and gravelly 
soils, with almost certain advantage — except on the sea- 
board — and the poorer the soil the more apparent its 
benefit — probably because such soils contain little or no 
gypsum, and have received little or no manure. Its 
mode of operation is yet matter of dispute. Sir H. Davy 
considers it a necessary element in some kinds of plants ; 
and his opinion is strengthened by the facts, that its ap- 
plication proves beneficial to such crops as afford it on 
analysis, as clover, lucerne, Indian corn, and broad-leaved 
plants generally ; that it is seldom of direct benefit to 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 89 

narrow-leaved crops, as wheat, rye, timothy, &c., which 
do not yield it on analysis ; and that it produces no bene- 
ficial effect upon wet or heavy clay grounds. 

Judge Peters, of Pennsylvania, and John Taylor, of 
Virginia, who multiplied experiments with gypsum, thought 
that a bushel an acre, sown broadcast upon grass lands, 
was a sufficient dressing. We have found two bushels 
an acre to be beneficial upon meadows. In arable hus- 
bandry, gypsum is either sown broadcast, before the last 
ploughing or harrowing, or put upon the plants in hilled 
or drilled crops. 

JWarl is another mineral substance which often induces 
fertility. It is composed of carbonate of lime, com- 
bined with sand or clay, and is deemed valuable in pro- 
portion to the quantity of lime which it contains. 

Clay-marl occurs in beds, more or less indurated ; 
and is sometimes so hard as to acquire the name of rock- 
marl. These marls should be laid upon the surface, not 
in heaps, but spread, that they may be well exposed to 
the ripening influence of the atmosphere, and if to the 
frosts of winter, the better. They have been found 
sometimes to be injurious without this exposure. Their 
operation is similar to that of mild lime, though slower. 
This kind of marl is most beneficially applied to sandy, 
gravelly, and peaty soils. It gives to such soils, what 
they want, both hme and clay. To improve a soil, 20 
or 30 loads of this marl are given to the acre ; but when 
the object is to change the constitution of a defective 
soil, doses of 300 to 400 cart-loads are given to the 
acre. The best way is to spread it upon the sward, 
where it remains until the land is brought under tillage. 
We have used the blue clay, containing 25 to 30 per 
cent, of the carbonate of hme, upon blowing sands, at 
the rate of 20 loads the acre, to very great advantage ; 
and consider its ultimate benefit greater than that of an 
equal quantity of stable-dung. When taken to the field 
it should be immediately scattered upon the surface ; the 
frost and weather so divide and break it down, that, when 
dry, it may be broken into powder, with but httle labor. 

Shell-marl is a deposit of marine, and sometimes of 
8* 



90 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

land-shells, immense beds of which are found along our 
southern Atlantic border, and frequently in the interior, 
where fresh-water ponds have apparently existed, and 
where the marl is generally covered with a bed of peat 
earth. This may be applied at the rate of 25 to 30 loads 
to the acre ; and may be spread upon stubble, upon a fal- 
low, or upon grass. While it benefits the herbage, the 
mineral sinks into the soil, and prepares it, when broken 
up, for the arable crop. Its effects are slower than those 
of lime, though they are said to last longer. 

A species of green sand is coming into extensive use 
in the maritime borders of New Jersey, Maryland, and 
Virginia, which is found of great potency in imparting 
fertility to the soil. Its fertilizing properties do not con- 
sist of carbonate of lime, but of potash, of which it gives 
on analysis about 14 per cent. It is applied like marl, 
but in somewhat less doses. 

Common salt has been highly recommended as a fer- 
tilizing material, and in many cases certainly has been 
used with great effect ; yet there do not seem to be 
any established rules to guide in its application. It is no 
doubt beneficially applied to some soils, and to some 
crops, while upon other soils and other crops it seems 
to be inoperative. It should be used sparingly, and 
should be mixed with manures or composts. 

It has been ascertained by experiments made by Hitt, 
Knight, Johnson, and others, that salt is serviceable in 
preventing some diseases of plants, as well as of animals. 
In the late investigations by a committee of the British 
Parliament, on the question of reducing the duty on salt 
for agricultural purposes, it abundantly appeared, that its 
free use to farm-stock was the best preventive of disease ; 
and that in several instances, where flocks of sheep had 
been diseased, they had been restored to health by the 
liberal use of this condiment. Used in moderate quan- 
tities, it is said to prevent mildew on the gooseberry, and 
on various garden and field crops. 

Until we know more of the peculiar properties of soils, 
and of the operation of mineral mixtures, the only way to 
determine the efficacy and economy of these applica- 



BY MINERAL MANURES. 91 

tions, is to experiment with them, upon a limited scale, 
upon our own ground. Although lime effects wonders 
in some districts, and upon some farms, yet in other ca- 
ses it does no good. This difference is sometimes found 
to exist upon the same farm, — one portion becoming 
highly benefited by lime, and another portion not at all 
affected by its application. General prescriptions can 
with no more propriety be apphed to bad soils, than they 
can be to the bad health of animals. What would cure 
the animal in one case might kill in another ; and what 
benefits one soil in one case, might be inoperative or 
prejudicial in another. 

The admixture of earths, to improve the mechanical 
texture of soils, — as sands with clays, and clays with 
sands, — is often made with advantage ; and we are per- 
suaded may be profitably carried to a greater extent, 
when the different kinds are found contiguous to each 
other. We have seen that sand, clay, lime, and organic 
matters are all useful constituents in a fertile soil. When 
one of them is deficient, it may often be supplied without 
much expense, and a permanent improvement effected 
thereby. It is on this principle that we apply lime, 
marl, and manures. The soil being deficient in these, 
or any one of them, by supplying the deficiency, we re- 
store it to its pristine condition, and sometimes increase 
its prolific powers. And we are often able to render 
peaty lands productive, after they have been drained, by 
blending sand, clay, or loam, or Hme, with the vegetable 
matters with which they abound. 

From the facts given in this and the preceding chap- 
ter, it will be apparent, that we lack not the means of 
feeding our farm-crops, and of thereby increasing our 
farm-products : we lack only the intelligence and indus- 
try which are necessary to render the means efficient. 
Most of our old-settled districts are employing one or 
more of these means to renovate the fertihty of the soil ; 
but it is doubtful whether any are employing all which 
are at their command to effect this object. The east 
are depending principally upon the resources of their 
cattle-yard, wherever they have become sensible of the 



92 IMPROVEMEET OF THE SOIL 

importance and practicability of improvement. Upon 
Long Island, fish, drawn ashes, and street manure, with 
clover, and alternation of crops, are rehed upon as sour- 
ces of fertility and profit. In the valley of the Hudson, 
clover, gypsum, and alternation of crops, and mixed hus- 
bandry, have done much towards improvement, and are 
hkely to do much more. In New Jersey, the green 
sand is working miracles, and stimulating the farmers to 
new exertions in improvement. In Eastern Pennsylvania, 
lime and plaster have done much. In Maryland and 
Virginia, marl is the efficient agent of improvement, near 
tide-water, and clover and gypsum in the interior. And 
as to the south and west, they either do not seem to know 
that land can wear out, or, reckless of the future, they 
seem determined to kill the goose which lays the golden 
egg. With, to be sure, many highly creditable excep- 
tions, the tendency of the system of husbandry at present 
pursued in the new south and west, is to wear out the 
soil, as it has been worn out, in many cases, on the east- 
ern borders of our country. 

Having shown, in the last chapter, that manures are 
indispensable to good husbandry — that they constitute 
the food of plants, and tend to amehorate and fit the soil 
for the performance of its important offices ; — and having 
noticed those manures which are most available to the 
farmer, and indicated the mode of profitably applying 
them — we proceed now to the next stage of improvement. 



CHAPTER XL 

IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL BY DRAINING. 

Few improvements, of modern introduction, promise 
greater benefits to husbandry than thorough draining. 
Whatever be the earthy constituents of the soil, or 
whatever its richness in organic matters, no northern cul- 
tivated crop will grow and produce well on lands that are 
habitually wet. 



BY DRAINING. 93 

In the first place, draining will reclaim, and render 
productive, large tracts of land, which now produce little 
or nothing useful, by reason of the water which covers 
or saturates them. In the next place, it will improve 
lands that are cold and wet, by reason of a level surface 
and retentive subsoil, and render them far more manage- 
able and productive, in grain, roots, and the more nutri- 
tious grasses, by carrying off the superfluous water. 
When there is an excess of moisture in the soil, plough- 
ing and pulverization can only be imperfectly performed, 
nor till late in spring, or in favorable weather — the bene- 
fit of manure is lost, and the cultivated crop is light, and 
more hable to be injured by late and early frosts, than it 
would be if the land were laid dry. From the experience 
of others, as well as from our own observation, we can 
venture to say, that by thoroughly draining lands of the 
above description, two weeks upon an average are gained 
in the getting in and the ripening of the crop, one third is 
gained in product, and one third is saved in the labor 
of tillage. 

We have hkened the offices of the soil to those of the 
animal stomach — the preparation of food. And we have 
said that these offices cannot be healthfully performed, 
by the soil, without the agency of heat and air, as well 
as of moisture. Now an excess of the latter excludes 
the proper agency of the two former. We all know 
that when the animal stomach is out of order, from any 
cause, so that the food taken upon it is not properly di- 
gested, the subsequent processes of nutrition are arrested, 
the animal sickens, and ultimately dies. So with the 
soil. If the organic matters deposited there, to feed the 
crop, are not decomposed, or rotted, and resolved into a 
liquid or gaseous form, so that they can be taken up by 
the spongioles, the cultivated plant will become sickly 
and unproductive, and the processes of healthy nutrition 
be at a stand. This is the case in all grounds habitually 
saturated with water. Hence the accumulation to excess, 
in such grounds, of peaty and inert vegetable matters, and 
their great fertility when thoroughly drained, and the ve- 
getable matters rendered soluble ; and hence the necessi- 



94 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

ty of draining the wet grounds upon our farms, before we 
can expect to make them profitable by cuhure. Coarse 
aquatic plants, it is true, do grow in wet grounds, and in 
water ; but few of the cultivated crops are found to thrive 
where the ground is not dry, and permeable to the influ- 
ence of the sun and the atmosphere. 

It is not enough, that the surface of a soil be dry, or 
that the soil itself be dry at some seasons of the year ; it 
must be free from excess of water at all seasons when re- 
quired to be worked, and during the growth of plants, to 
the depth to which their roots penetrate for food, at least 
fifteen to eighteen inches, to insure a healthy growth of 
vegetation. It is the extremities of these roots which 
gather the food, and which are constantly lengthening, in 
annuals and perennials, while the plant grows ; and if roots 
extend into a wet stratum of soil, the food they take up 
is either too much diluted, or not otherwise adapted to a 
healthy vegetation. Besides, stagnant water in the soil 
injures or destroys the fibrous parts of the roots, and un- 
fits them for the performance of their functions. Nor is 
this all : lands that hold water in a wet season, become 
compact and hard when the water has subsided or evap- 
orated — impenetrable alike to the roots of the crop, and 
the ameliorating influence of the atmosphere. Wet 
clays suffer most from drought. The truth of these re- 
marks may be verified by any farmer who will compare 
the growth and product of crops upon wet and dry grounds. 

We have no question of the economy of draining wet 
lands, even if they are to be kept in meadow and pasture, 
provided the work is well done. There are but few 
nutritious grasses that will thrive in a wet soil. The fol- 
lowing simple table, says Armstrong, exhibits at a glance 
the present state of our knowledge on this important 
part of our subject. 

Whole number of plants in wet meadows, 30 ; useful, 4; useless or bad, 26. 
Do. dry meadows, 38 ; do. 8 ; do. 30. 

Do. moist meadows, 42 ; do. 17 ; do. 25. 

We have expended considerable money in this kind of 
improvement, and our experience has more and more 
confirmed our opinion of its advantages. An outlay of 



BY DRAINING. 95 

15 to 20 dollars an acre in draining, has often been repaid 
by the extra product of the reclaimed land in two or three 
seasons. 

Wet soils proceed from two causes, viz., first, from 
the rain and snow waters which fall upon the surface, 
which are arrested in their downward course, by an im- 
pervious stratum of earth or rock, and, if the surface is 
level, or nearly so, repose and stagnate there, rendering 
the soil compact, wet, and cold, and infertile. And, 
secondly, from waters which, having passed through 
porous strata, are arrested by an impervious stratum lower 
down ; and, operated upon by a constant pressure, find 
their outlet upon the outcroppings of the impervious stra- 
tum, or are forced up again in the form of spouts and 
springs, — and which impart to the soil which they saturate, 
an excess of moisture, and a cold temperature, wholly 
unsuited to the growth of farm-crops. 

The first object, in seeking to rid lands of surplus 
water, is, to determine from which of the above causes 
the evil arises ; — and having ascertained the cause — 
having located the fountain of waters — the next considera- 
tion is, how to get rid of, or drain it, with the least ex- 
pense, and with most benefit to the land. 

A stiff soil, as one of clay lying upon a slope, or 
being upon a level, and having a porous subsoil, may be 
suflSciently freed from water by throwing the land into 
ridges, terminating in the lower level. These ridges may 
be narrow or wide, according to the tenacity of the soil, 
and the slope of the surface. This is one kind of sur- 
face-draining. 

In hollows and other depressions of surface, where 
waters accumulate suddenly, from thawing of snow or 
heavy rains, open drains should in all cases be made ; 
and these should be of capacity to receive all the waters 
which may come into them, and of sufficient slope at 
the sides to render their banks secure and permanent. 
These are also to serve as outlets to the under-drains. 
Surface-drains of this kind are often wholly insufficient, 
by reason of their not being deep or broad enough, or 
they become contracted from a want of care in scouring 



96 IMPROVEMENT OF THE SOIL 

and keeping them in order. Parsimony in draining is 
seldom economy in farming. 

When wetness is caused by spouts or springs, rising 
from below, the object is to prevent the water rising to or 
saturating the soil, and spreading through the grounds lying 
below ; and the mode of effecting this is to cut a drain at 
the point, or a little above it, where the water from these 
spouts or springs seems first to affect the surface soil. 
Where the soil is very porous, the presence of water may 
not be indicated upon the surface. In this case, holes 
should be made down to the subsoil, at different levels, 
to ascertain where the fountain is. The drain should be 
so far sunk into the subsoil, as to make a complete chan- 
nel in it for the water which it is expected to convey. 
Under-drains are decidedly preferable for this kind of 
improvement : — Because, 

1. They are most efficient. They can be made to 
reach, by digging and boring, the depot of water, or wa- 
ter stratum, and thus to carry off the water before it ap- 
proaches the surface, or pasture of plants. Open drains 
do this but seldom, or imperfectly, because they are not 
often carried deep enough, and are continually liable to 
obstructions, which impair their efficiency. 

2. They are most durable. An under-drain, laid in 
the most approved mode, with stone or tile, will last an 
age, and perhaps a century. Open drains are but tem- 
porary in their beneficial effects, without periodical re- 
pairs. 

3. They are most economical. A good under-drain 
costs no more than a good open drain, designed for a 
like purpose, and which probably does not effect so much, 
as the former can be carried down w^ith nearly perpen- 
dicular sides, wdiile the latter must be dug with sloping 
banks, and must embrace a width of surface corresponding 
with its depth — the deeper the drain, the broader it must be 
at the top. The cost of the stone or tile is in a manner 
counterbalanced by the difference in excavation. And, 
when completed, the under-drain will seldom require re- 
pairs, while the open one will be a constant drain upon 
the labor of the farm, requiring bridges and frequent 



BY DRAINING. 97 

scourings and cleanings. If under-drains cost something 
the most, they are certainly cheapest in the end, if they 
are well constructed ; and they waste no land. 

The only other kind of drains we shall mention, are 
what are termed furrow-drains. They are of recent 
introduction even in Europe, and particularly distinguish 
Scotch husbandry. They are employed upon lands 
which are nearly level, where there is a tenacious subsoil, 
to free them from an excess of water at all seasons when 
the ground is not frozen. The field intended to be fur- 
row-drained is laid into ridges, of from sixteen to thir- 
ty feet broad, according to the texture of the soil, in 
the direction of the slope, or with such descent as to carrj^ 
off the water, and under-drains are laid in every central 
furrow, so deep, that, when covered, the materials of the 
drain shall not be disturbed by the plough. A cross- 
drain is laid on the upper margin of the field, to catch the 
water coming from above, and another at the lower side, 
which should be six inches deeper than the furrow-drains, 
to receive and convey off the water from them. The 
effect of these drains is to enable the cultivator to work 
the land easier, better, and at his leisure, and greatly to 
increase its product. The labor and expense of this 
kind of drains seem great, to those who have not made 
them, and their economy may seem doubtful ; but we are 
persuaded that, after a little experience, the benefit will 
be found to outweigh the expense. 

Wherever coarse aquatic grasses are found growing, 
however dry the surface may appear, the farmer may de- 
pend that under-draining will be an improvement, and if 
he will sink a pit, eighteen inches deep, in such places, 
he will in a few hours find water at the bottom. 

We draw no comparison, nor do we need any, to show 
the difference in products and profits between a field ha- 
bitually wet, and the trouble and expense of managing it, 
and the same field after it has undergone a thorough drain- 
age and amelioration. In the first case it produces very 
little, and seldom pays the expense of cultivation. In the 
latter, it is often the most productive field on the farm. 
Every farmer, we presume, has noticed the vast dispari- 
9 XV. 



98 OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 

ty. If there is one to whom it is not familiar, let him 
make the trial, and he will be astonished at the result, 
and at his own want of forethought in not having made it 
before. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 

For the purpose of illustrating the operations of drain- 
ing, we shall consider the subject under, — 

1 . Draining the surface ; 

2. Draining the soil ; and, 

3. Draining the subsoil. 

1. Draining the surface. Surface-water wants only 
a suitable channel, and a moderate inclination, to readily 
pass off. In case of heavy rains, it is seen that tenacious 
soils, upon a level or slightly-inclined surface, are liable 
to be flooded with surface-water, which often stands for 
some time in pools, destroys the seed or growing crops, 
and renders the soil, when dry, compact and hard. Again, 
in ravines, or depressed surfaces, the like evils are liable 
to occur, from the sudden accumulations of water, v^^ith- 
out a proper gradation of surface, and a sufficient drain to 
carry it off. 

In the first case, the evil may be corrected by throw- 
ing the land into ridges, the modes of doing which we 
shall prescribe under the article ploughing. 

In the second case, when large quantities of surface- 
water are liable to concentrate from heavy rains, an open 
drain or ditch is the only resort. This should be capa- 
cious enough to carry oft', in its channel, all the waters 
that may thus accumulate. It should be from two to four 
feet deep, to give a sufficient descent to drain off* the 
waters from the contiguous grounds. Its banks should 
have a slope of 45 degrees, that they may resist the pres- 
sure from the surface, and the action of the water ; and 
in digging the sides should be left solid, without being 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 99 

hacked or perforated with the spade. The earth taken 
from the trenches should be removed from their borders, 
and either spread over the surface, or, if peaty, taken to 
the compost-heap, or to higher grounds, so as to leave a 
slight inclination, on each side, for the surface-waters to 
pass into the drain. 

2. Draining the soil — of waters reposing upon the 
subsoil. The soil, if the subsoil is porous, or a consid- 
erable inclination exists in its position, may be freed from 
surface-water by ridging. The surplus water, in these 
cases, either settles down through the subsoil, or passes 
off through the furrows between the ridges or upon the 
inchned subsoil. But where the surface is nearly level, 
and the subsoil tenacious, under-drains must be resorted 
to, into which the water may settle and be conducted off, 
before it injures the crops or texture of the soil. 

Under-drains, in cases to which we now have refer- 
ence, need be but two to three feet deep, so that the ma- 
terial of which they are constituted shall not be liable to 
be disturbed by the tread of cattle, or the operations of 
the plough. Some fifteen or twenty inches of these may 
be economically sunk by the plough. The instruments 
for completing them, are the common spade and shovel, 
for throwing out the loose substances, and a pick or mat- 
tock for raising the stones and breaking the earth where 
hard. The sides may be nearly perpendicular, and the 
ditch be no broader than is merely convenient to work in. 
The workmen should commence at the lower, and work 
up to the higher ground ; and so much descent should 
not be given as to render the bottom and sides liable to 
be worn away by a strong current of water. 

The materials to be used for forming the drains, may 
be stones, tiles, or other hard substances. In drains where 
considerable water is expected to flow, it is advisable to 
form a conduit at the bottom, of four to ten inches square. 
Where stones are to be employed, either as a covering 
to the conduit, or as a drain of themselves, they should 
be broken to so small a size, that moles or ground-mice 
cannot penetrate and find a shelter among them ; for if 
they can they will ; and by opening apertures to the sur- 



100 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



face, they will let in surface-water, with the earthy mat- 
ters which it contains, and which will uhimately fill the 
interstices and choke up the drain. The stones should 
be broken to a size not to exceed four inches, the ex- 
pense of doing which will not exceed 25 to 30 cents the 
cubic yard. If a stone conduit is laid, or tiles are em- 
ployed, the first covering of them should be broken stone, 
or porous materials, to a convenient height, in order that 
the water settling from above, may find free access to the 
drain. Conduits of stone are seldom necessary in furrow- 
draining — it being sufficient to break and throw in stone 
from 12 to 24 inches in depth. 

Conduits to under-drains are made by building a Httle 
wall, roughly, with stone or brick, on each side at the 
bottom, about 6 inches in height, so as to leave a passage 
for the water six inches in width and six inches high. 
These side-walls are covered with flat stones, as close as 
can be conveniently placed, and straw or fitter thrown 
over to defend the conduit from earth and other substan- 
ces which might get into it before the ground has become 
compact and firm. When this is done, broken stones 
may be thrown in promiscuously, if they are at hand, to 
the height of 6 to 24 inches, according to the supply and 
the depth of the drain ; and the earth then filled in and 
rounded upon the surface. A drain thus formed will ap- 
pear on a transverse section as in fig. 1, and after the 
subsidence of the earth as in fig. 2. Where the earth is 
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. 





OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



101 



very soft, it is of benefit to bed the bottom of the drain 
with stones or slates, or with boards or plank. 

We believe we were among the first to employ tiles in 
draining in the United States, though they have long been 
in use in Europe. We adopted them as a matter of ne- 
cessity, having no stone. They are made of a peculiar 
kind of clay, and resemble, when burnt, red earthen. 
When sufficiently burnt, they are very durable. They 
are used with soles made of like materials, or are laid 
upon boards. The draining-tiles and soles are represent- 
ed by fig. 3. We have laid some ten thousand feet of 
tiles, for which we paid $15 per thousand feet, and find 
them to answer an excellent purpose. We recommend 
their use only where stone cannot be readily obtained. 



Fig. 3. 



Fig. 4. 




Tile drains, as seen at fig. 4, may be finished at bot- 
tom by using a narrow-mouthed spade, somewhat taper- 
ing, and broad enough to admit the tile and its sole, or a 
board ; the tiles are then laid down close, and the joints 
covered with turf, or straw, or brush, and the space on 
the sides compactly filled, so as to prevent the passage of 
water there ; small stones or porous earth may be then 
laid on, so that the water from above may pass freely into 
the drain, and the trench then filled with earth. 

What we term soil-draining, is most frequently resorted 
to in swamps and low lands, into which the water collects 
from higher grounds, and which is prevented from passing 
9* 



102 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



ofF by an impervious stratum below, and often upon the 
borders. The first object liere is to make an outlet, of 
sufficient size and depth to carry off the water ; the sec- 
ond to carry a main drain through the marsh or swamp ; 
and the third to lay lateral and other under-drains, accord- 
ing to the extent of the ground, to collect and conduct 
the waters into the main drain. The under-drains should 
not enter the main drain at right angles, but diagonally, 
inclining down the stream. If waters come in from the 
margins of the low ground, they must be arrested then 
by under-drains, and conducted off, as represented in fig. 
5. Care should be taken to sink the main drain, and the 

Fig. 5. 




Cross Section. 



Others, particularly those around the margin of the swamp, 
into the subsoil, or impervious stratum, so that the water 
shall not pass under the drain into the lower ground. If 
the surface-water that flows into the main drain be con- 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 103 

siderable, it should be open, but covered in all other 
cases. 

There is another mode, which is sonietimes success- 
fully practised, of getting rid of the water which reposes 
upon the subsoil, when the stratum of the subsoil is thin, 
and lies upon a porous gravel or sand ; which is, by bo- 
ring or digging through the subsoil, so as to let the water 
pass into the porous stratum below. In this case the 
holes or pits are generally filled with stones, and the drains 
conducted to them. 

3. Subsoil draining, or the drainage of waters that 
rise through the subsoil, or pass off at its outcroppings, 
as upon the declivities of hills, &c. In discussing this 
section, we shall principally quote from Professor Low's 
Elements of Practical Agriculture. 

" It is the intercepting of water below the surface that 
constitutes the most difficult part of draining, and which 
requires the application of principles which it is not ne- 
cessary to apply in the case of surface-draining. 

" If we shall penetrate a little way into the looser por- 
tion of earth, we shall generally find a minute stratification, 
consisting of gravel, sand, or clay, of different degrees of 
density. These strata are frequently horizontal, frequent- 
ly they follow nearly the inclination of the surface, and 
frequently they are broken and irregular. Sometimes the 
stratum is very thin, and a few inches in thickness, and 
sometimes it is several feet thick ; and sometimes the 
traces of stratification disappear, and we find only, to a 
great depth, a large mass of clay or other homogeneous 
substance. 

^'When these substances are of a clayey nature, water 
finds its way through them with difficulty ; when they are 
of a looser texture, water percolates through them freely. 
These, accordingly, form the natural conduits or channels 
for the water which is below the surface, when finding its 
way from a higher to a lower level. 

" When any bed or stratum of this kind, in which 
water is percolating, crops out to the surface, the wa- 
ter which it contains will flow out and form a burst 
or spring, oozing over and saturating the ground, as in 



104 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



fig. 6, which represents a section of the ground from C 
to D. 



Fig. 6. 



Fig. 7. 





" When water is, in like manner, percolating through 
one of these pervious strata, and meets with any obstruc- 
tion, as a rock or bed of clay, (A, fig. 7,) it is stopped 
in its progress, and, by the pressure of the water from a 
higher source, it is forced upwards, and thus saturates the 
superjacent soil, as from D to E, forming springs or a 
general oozing. 

" In either of these cases, and they are the most fre- 
quent that occur in practice, the object of the drainer is 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



105 



to reach the water in its subterraneous channel before it 
shall arrive at the surface, and carry it away in a drain. 

" By cutting a drain at A, fig. 6, the water of the 
stratum of sand, C E, is cut off before it reaches the sur- 
face at E, where it forms the swamp, C D. 

" In hke manner, in fig. 7, by forming a drain at C, 
or F, the water is cut off in its channel A B, and thus, 
in relieving the pressure from a higher source, by giving 
egress to the water through the drain, the cause of the 
wetness from E to D is removed. 

" In looking at the slo- 
ping surface of any tract of 
ground, as a field, in which 
there is an oozing or burst- 
ing out of water, we shall 
generally distinguish the line 
where the wetness appears 
upon the surface, extending 
over a considerable space, 
X X X X x^ fig. 8, the efi:ects 
appearing in the wetness of 
the ground further down the 
slope, as y y y- The hne 
where the wetness begins, 
which is generally rendered 
perceptible by the change 
of color of the soil, the ten- 
^ dency to produce subaquatic 
plants, and other indications 
of wetness, marks, for the 
most part, nearly the course 
which the line of the drain 
should follow. By cutting 
a drain nearly in this line, 
as from G to A, sufficiently 
deep to reach the stratum in 
which the water percolates, 
we shall intercept it before it reaches the surface, and by 
carrying it away in some convenient outlet, A B, remove 
the cause of wetness. 




106 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



^' This accordingly forms, in the greater number of 
cases, the rule adopted in practice for the laying out of 
drains upon the surface. The line is drawn nearly at, 
or a little above, the line of wetness, or, to use the com- 
mon expression, between the wet and the dry. 

" Should the line of drain be draw^n too much below 
the line of wetness, as at G, fig. 5, then the trench would 
fail to Intercept the water ; and further, if it were filled 
with earth, stones, and other substances, in the way to be 
afterwards described, the whole, or a part, of the water 
would pass over it, and the injury be unremoved. 

" Again, should the line be too much above the line 
of wetness, as at H, the drain would fail to reach the 
channel of the water, and so 
would be useless. 

'' It is for this reason that, in 
common practice, the rule is, to 
clear the line of the drain nearly 
between the wet and the dry, or 
a little above it, taking care to 
give it the necessary descent, and 
to form it of sufficient depth to 
reach the pervious bed or stra- 
tum in which the water is con- 
tained. 

" But as the water may arrive 
at the surface in different ways, 
and the wetness be produced by 
different causes, so variations 
from this rule of lining out the 
drain may be required, and the 
judgement of the drainer is to be 
shown in adapting the course of 
his drain to the change of cir- 
cumstances. 

" Sometimes in a hollow piece 
of ground feeders may reach the 
descent, as In fig. 9, and the 
water may be forced upwards by 
the pressure from each side of 




OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



107 



the hollow, and thus form a swamp from A to B. It may 
not be necessary here to cut a trench on each side along 
the line of wetness at A and B ; a single trench, C, cut 
in the hollow, and giving egress to the water, may relieve 
the pressure and remove the swamp. 

'' Sometimes, upon a sloping surface, one pervious stra- 
tum, in which the water percolates, may produce more 
than one line of springs, as at B and A in fig. 10. Here 
a single drain, cut at B, will remove the cause of wetness 
at both swamps, without the necessity of the drain at A. 

" And, in practice, it is well to mark the effects of a 
drain cut in the higher part of the slope to be drained, for 
these effects often extend further than might be anticipated, 
removing springs, oozings, or bursts at a great distance. 




108 OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 

" On the other hand, a single swamp, as from B to A, 
fig. 11, may be produced, and yet one drain at B may 
be insufficient to remove it. In this case, the water being 
brought to the surface by more than one channel, it is 
necessary to form several drains to reach the several beds 
in which the water is contained, as at B, C, and D. 

" These examples will show, that one rule, with re- 
spect to the laying out of drains, is not applicable to all 
cases, but that the drainer should adapt his remedy as 
much as possible to the cause of injury. One object, 
however, to be aimed at in all cases of under-draining, is 
to reach the bed, channel, or reservoir, in which the wa- 
ter is contained. 

"Before beginning to drain a field or tract of ground, 
it is frequently well to ascertain, by examination, the na- 
ture of the substances to be dug through. 

"At the upper part, where the wet tract to be drained 
appears, or between the wet and the dry, let a few pits 
be dug. The place of each pit is to be marked out near- 
ly in the direction of the proposed line of drain, six feet 
long by three in width, in which space one man, and, if 
required, two, can work. Let the earth be thrown out 
to the lower side, and to such a distance from the edge 
of the pit as not to press upon and break down the sides. 
Let these pits be cast out to the depth of five or six feet, 
or more if necessary, so that we may reach, if possible, 
the porous beds in which the water is contained. Should 
we find no water, then let us apply a boring-rod, in order 
to ascertain at what depth the porous substance hes in 
which the water is contained. 

" Sometimes water will not be found until we come to 
a great depth. It may be so deep that we cannot reach 
it by any drain, or even by boring with the auger. In 
this case, we are saved the labor of making the drain un- 
necessarily deep. Sometimes we shall proceed to a con- 
siderable depth without finding any appearance of water, 
when, all at once, by breaking through some thin stratum 
we shall reach it. The water is frequently seen, in this 
case, to boil up like a fountain, and this affords the assu- 
rance that we shall succeed in our object. 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 109 

*' This species of preparatory examination, by means 
of pits, is therefore, in many cases, useful. It affords 
the means of judging of the proper depth and dimensions 
of which the drain shall be formed ; it prevents the com- 
mitting of errors in the laying out of the lines of drains ; 
and enables the drainer to enter into contracts with his 
workmen with precision. 

" When we have thus, by sinking pits in various parts 
of our intended lines, obtained an idea of the nature of 
the ground, of the substances to be dug through, and of 
the depth of the water, we mark our lines of drains upon 
the ground. 

*' This may be done by pins, or by a plough drawing 
a furrow along the intended line. 

"It is at this time very convenient to make a hand- 
sketch of the piece of ground to be drained, marking each 
line as it is laid off in the field, and noting the depth and 
direction in which the water is to run. 

" The hues being marked off in the manner described, 
these are to form the upper edges of the drains. 

" The width of the drain at the top depends upon its 
depth, it being usual, except in the case of very hard 
and tenacious substances, to make it slope from the top 
to the bottom. Thus, if it be 6 feet deep, and from 
18 inches to 2 feet wide at bottom, it may be 2^ feet 
wide at top. 

'' But it is often impracticable to reach these substances 
with a drain of common depth. In this case apertures 
may be formed at the bottom of the drain, by boring or 
sinking down at the proper distances, until the pervious 
bed in which the water is contained is reached. By 
this means the water will be allowed to flow up from be- 
low into the cavity of the drain, and so will be carried 
away. 

" The application of this principle had been familiar 
from the remotest times in the sinking of wells. But it 
was not till after the middle of the last century that the 
same principle was applied to the draining of lands. This 
was done by Mr. Elkington, of Warwickshire, who em- 
ployed the auger and the boring-rod for the purpose of 
10 XV. 



110 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. 



reaching the channels and reservoirs below the surface, 
when an ordinary drain could not reach them. 

" The auger employed for this purpose is similar to a 
carpenter's wimble. It may be from four to five inches in 
diameter. Square iron rods are made to be screwed into 
each other, so that the length of the line of rods may be 
increased in proportion as the auger penetrates the ground. 
In fig. 12, A is the auger, B one of the rods, C a key 
for turning it round and working it, T> another key for 
holding the rods when they are to be unscrewed by means 
of the key C. 

Fm. 13. 



jf ^ 



Fig. 15 







** This instrument may frequently be found useful when 
the channels and reservoirs can be reached in this man- 
ner. The apertures are formed by the auger in the bot- 
tom of the drain. When the water is reached, it will 
spring up into the drain, in the same manner as water in 
the bottom of a well. It is not necessary to employ any 
artificial means for keeping the apertures open, as the 
flow of the water will suffice to maintain for itself a pas- 
sage. 

" Sometimes, in place of an auger-hole, wells are sunk 



OPERATIONS OF DRAINING. Ill 

at intervals along the side of the drain, and filled with 
stones in the manner shown in fig. 13. 

" In all cases of under-draining, the drains should be 
made of sufficient dimensions. They should not be less 
than 4 feet deep, even when the pervious stratum hes a 
less depth ; and the reason is, that they may be more 
permanent, and better defended from injury, from mud 
and sand carried down by surface-water. It is not neces- 
sary that they be made deeper than 4 feet when that is 
found to be sufficient ; but they must be carried, if neces- 
sary, to the depth of 6 feet, or sometimes of 7 feet, 
though the expense and difficulty of executing the work 
increase, in a great proportion, as the dimensions of the 
drain increase. 

" The importance, in this species of draining, of pro- 
ceeding upon principles in laying out the lines of drains, 
instead of acting at random, as so many do, cannot be too 
strongly impressed upon the attention of the drainer. 
Every drain, however rudely devised, and imperfectly 
executed, may do some good. But one drain well laid 
out, and of the required dimensions, may perform a pur- 
pose which no multipHcation of minor and insufficient 
drains can effect. These may lessen the effects of wet- 
ness, but the other is designed to remove the causes of 
it ; and the more perfect practice will usually be found, 
in the end, to be the most economical as well as the most 
efficient. 

" The drains of the larger class described, it will be 
seen, are intended solely for the removal of water which 
is contained in reservoirs and channels below the surface. 
They do not supersede the necessity of carrying away 
water which is at or near the surface. From this latter 
cause, an equal or greater injury may arise, and must be 
met by a corresponding remedy." — Professor Low''s Ele- 
ments of Jlgriculture. 

Under- drains, for the want of stones or tiles, are some- 
times constructed of other materials, as boards, plank, 
brush, straw, turf, &c. We have tried them all. They 
serve a temporary purpose, and may be resorted to as 
matters of necessity. But we would not advise their use 



112 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

on the score of economy. In draining the rule has pecu- 
liar force, that what is done should be well done — be 
the object either economy, or permanent utihty. 

We repeat — draining is comparatively a new branch 
of improvement with us. Its principles are little under- 
stood, and its advantages but illy appreciated ; and we 
are not likely to learn much in either except from ex- 
perience. When we are convinced of its value, we shall 
persevere in it, notwithstanding repeated disappointments, 
till we succeed in managing it upon correct principles. 
The sooner we begin, therefore, the more rapid will be 
our progress and the greater the advantages. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

When thorough draining has been effected, upon lands 
to be benefited thereby, there is another operation which 
is calculated to aid in the efficiency of manures, and in 
the increase of farm-products. This is good tillage^ — a 
perfect pulverization of the soil, and the keeping it free 
from weeds, which retard the growth of the crop, and 
rob it of its food. Good tillage is important, not only as 
it serves to exterminate weeds, to facilitate the digestion 
of vegetable food, and to mix and incorporate this food 
with earthy matters, — but as it breaks and mellows the 
soil, and enables the roots of plants to range freely in 
search of this food. 

Every farmer must have observed, that when tillage 
has been but imperfectly performed, as is sometimes seen 
about stumps and rocks, and near fences, the crop is 
comparatively feeble and light. This is not owing to the 
poverty of the soil, because the plough, as it rises to the 
surface in these places, deposits and accumulates there the 
finest and best mould of the field. The feebleness of 
the grain arises from the imperfect tillage which these 
spots receive. 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 113 

As we have before observed, the atmosphere and the 
rains are not only charged with the elements of fertility, 
but they are indispensable agents, together with heat, in 
preparing the vegetable food deposited in the soil. Com- 
plete pulverization, therefore, is essential to the full de- 
velopement of their enriching properties. They should 
not only be permitted to enter ^ but to circulate in the soil. 
Stagnant air and stagnant water soon become hurtful to 
plants as well as to animals. 

The old practice of carrying the main furrows to the 
extremity of the field, and of dispensing with head-lands, 
is a bad and slovenly one, and ought to be every where 
exploded, because, under this practice, the head-lands can 
only be imperfectly worked. The cut-and-cover prac- 
tice is still worse, as it leaves one half, and sometimes 
two thirds of the soil, undisturbed by the plough. We 
remember well, when we followed the plough in our boy- 
hood, and knew nothing of the philosophy of ploughing, 
our aim was, to go over much ground, and show a plough- 
ed surface, regarding the complete breaking up of the soil 
as of minor importance. There will always be a great 
many boys at the plough, until the importance of good 
ploughing is well understood. Good ploughing consists 
in turning and breaking every inch of the soil to the re- 
quired depth ; and good tillage requires that the harrow 
and roller should finish, if the plough has failed to effect, 
a complete pulverization. A green sward becomes pul- 
verulent as the roots of the grasses decay, and is best 
without a second furrow, because this turns again to the 
surface, to the wasting influence of the sun and winds, 
the vegetable matters buried by the first ploughing, and 
which, if left buried, would contribute largely to the sus- 
tenance of the crop. As the roots of the grasses decay, 
the soil becomes loose and porous, and is permeable to 
moisture, air, and heat. Hence the advantage of fallow 
crops over naked fallows, and of depositing seeds upon 
the top of a clover ley ; the sod then imparts fertility to 
the soil, while it enables it to derive important advantages 
from the co-operation of external agents. 

Good tillage requires that, when practicable, as in the 
10* 



114 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

culture of drilled and hoed crops, the surface soil should 
be kept clean while the crop is growing, for the same rea- 
son that the soil is required to be made so before depos- 
iting the seed ; viz., to facilitate the decomposition of the 
vegetable food, to stimulate the organs of the plants, and 
increase the growth and product of the crop. There is 
no better expedient for preventing the evils of drought 
upon a soil, than that of keeping the surface mellow and 
clean. Atmospheric air and dew, always charged with 
the food of plants, penetrate such a surface as into a 
sponge, and impart to the roots of plants both aliment 
and stimuli. Dews fall upon a hard surface, and are 
evaporated by the first rays of the morning sun ; but they 
penetrate a loose surface, and moisten and fructify it. 
Hence the high repute of drill husbandry, which enables 
the cultivator to keep his crops clean, and the surface of 
his soil mellow and open. 

Good tillage has reference to depth, as well as quality 
of tilth. " There are many plants, the roots of which 
are found from fifteen to twenty, and even thirty feet un- 
der ground — sainfoin and lucerne, for instance ; even red 
clover will strike down three feet if the soil be a fertile 
loam ; and some of our commonest vegetables, if it be a 
friable or sandy, push their tap roots to about the same 
depth. The roots of wheat will penetrate as far as eight 
inches into the earth ; and when sown on the crowns of 
ridges, they have been found at the depth of twelve. We 
may therefore assume the depth of twelve inches as the 
utmost vegetative limit of corn land. Provided the soil 
be open and fertile, the nearer its depth approaches to 
twelve inches, the greater number of plants may it there- 
fore be supposed capable of furnishing with support." — 
British Husbandry, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50. 

Soils should be ploughed as deep as the substratum 
will admit, at least once in a course of crops, if this can 
be reached with the force of an ordinary team ; and when 
the surface soil is superficial, it should be deepened, as 
fast as fertility can be imparted, by turning up, ^t suitable 
intervals, some portion of the subsoil. The atmosphere 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 115 

imparts to this apparent inert earth, more or less of the 
elements of fertility. 

We have a good illustration of the advantages of artifi- 
cially, but gradually, deepening the soil, in the practice 
of Baron Von Voght, an eminent German agriculturist, 
who in a few years transformed a thin, unproductive soil 
into one of great depth and fertility. 

In 1813, the Baron undertook to improve the condi- 
tion of an estate denominated Flottbeck, as a pattern 
farm, and to make it an experimental farm for the north 
of Germany. In 1829, he had carried his improvements 
to so high a state of excellence, that he published, for the 
benefit of the visiters who thronged to see him, a pam- 
phlet,, developing the principles, by the adoption of which, 
his soil, naturally bad, had been raised to a state of high 
productiveness. It is from a portion of this pamphlet, 
for we have not seen the whole of it, that we collate the 
following facts. 

The soil of Flottbeck is a mixture of sand and clay. 
Its original depth of krume (mould) was only three inch- 
es ; the surface was uneven, and the soil wet, water stand- 
ing for a long time, and manure ineffectual on account of 
the consequent low temperature. Fields could not be 
sown, owing to quagmires, often till June. The winter 
crops were full of tares and perennial weeds ; summer 
crops abounded in wild radish and mustard, the clover 
with wild chamomile, sorrel, &c., and the fields with 
dog's grass, and other noxious plants. How many of 
our farms now form a counterpart to this description of 
Flottbeck ! 

The means of improving which the Baron instituted to 
raise the condition, and increase the fertility of this farm, 
consisted principally in — 

1. Levelling the surface, and thorough drainage. 

2. Deepening the krume, or soil, at least one inch a 
year, till he had gained a depth of fourteen inches — this 
depth being requisite, in his opinion, for the roots of plants 
to penetrate, and as a reservoir for moisture, to supply the 
crop in time of dry weather. To obtain this depth, trench 
ploughing (rayolt) was resorted to when necessary. 



116 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

3. Increasing the fertility with the increasing depth of 
the soil, by ploughing in green crops, and by husbanding 
and judiciously applying manure — the latter applied to 
the potato and rape crops, and before it had become ex- 
hausted by fermentation. 

4. Throwing the land into one-bout ridges in autumn, 
(it being generally flat and rather stiff',) and cleaning the 
intermediate furrows with a double mouldboard plough. 
This operation enriched the soil by atmospheric influence, 
broke down its stubbornness, and laid it dry, so that the 
spring operations could be commenced two or three 
weeks earlier than formerly. 

5. Thorough pulverization preparatory to putting in 
seeds, and giving these only a superficial covering of 
earth. 

6. Graduating, by a scale, which the Baron's long ob- 
servation and numerous experiments had enabled him to 
contrive, the manure to be' applied, to the precise de- 
mands of the soil and the crop — thus receiving the whole 
benefit which it was capable of imparting, without loss by 
excess. 

7. A judicious rotation — in which green crops often 
intervened. The rotation was one of six years, as the 
clover, which he observes forms the basis of agriculture, 
cannot return oftener. The intermediate crops were 
wheat, oats, mixed fodder, barley, rye, potatoes, vetches, 
rape, &c., the climate of Germany not admitting the cul- 
ture of Indian corn. 

In 1829, Flottbeck exhibited a far different appearance 
from what it did in 1813. All the fields showed a level 
surface — the krumiC or mould had every where a depth 
of 14 inches. The fields were rendered dry by ditches, 
and the under-water was carried off' by 27 under-drains — 
no noxious plants infested the ground, save the dog's 
grass, when the clover happened to be frozen out — and 
the produce was so much increased, that the same area, 
which, in 1813, would yield only 14 bushels rye, in 1829 
was found to produce 24 bushels of wheat. 

We think there is much in Baron Von Voght's prac- 
tice that commends itself to the notice of our farmers. 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 117 

The means which he employed are within our reach, and 
the advantages of using them manifest. The chmate of 
Germany is not very dissimilar to ours, save that ours is 
rather the most mild. 

That our readers may understand the principles upon 
which the improvements at Flottbeck were based, we 
subjoin them in the Baron's own words. 

'' The few general principles adopted here with all 
kinds of produce, are the fruit of thirteen years' experi- 
ence, and several thousand experiments. 

" 1. The soil must have 11.280 to 14.000 inches of 
krume, in order to admit of the roots penetrating into the 
ground ; that in wet weather, the water, which in a flat 
soil might drown the crops, may be absorbed, and formed 
in the deep into a reservoir, from which the* extremities 
of the roots may imbibe a nourishing moisture, impregna- 
ted with carbonic gas, which it draws from the manure 
fermenting in the earth.* 

"The krume must have a depth of 14.000 inches, in 
order that the exhausted surface, being buried at a greater 
depth, may reimbibe the lost moisture. 

" This I obtained, by having the land ploughed in au- 
tumn, to a depth of about 5.640 to 7.520 inches, then 
having it finely harrowed, and finally rayolt it with two 
ploughs, one behind the other, (the last with four ani- 
mals ;) this requires, of course, swing ploughs, as it is 
absolutely necessary to plough before rayoled. 

*' The latter operation is usually performed by oxen. 

"2. In autumn all ditches must be opened, and all 
the drains examined, so that the water may not be stopped 
in any place. 

"3. The rayolt lands must be laid in high furrows, 
by means of ploughing, always two furrows together, af- 
ter the rayoled and furrowing, so as to make a water-fur- 

* " Thaer mentions the following proportion of the value of the soil, 
with a flat and deep mould. ' If,' says he, ' the soil, with a mould 
of three inches, is worth 38, that possessed of five inches of mould 
will be worth 50 ; that of 8, 62 ; and that of 11, 74 ;' and this en- 
tirely agrees with my experience at Flottbeck. Should we then hesi- 
tate to spend a few years, and some manure, thus permanently to 
enhance the value of our fields ?" 



118 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

row at every 16.920 inches, which is deepened and 
cleaned by means of a double struckbrett, [mouldboards 
fixed to the plough,] with a clayey soil ; this operation 
is indispensable. 

" The advantage of this mode of treatment is, that it 
keeps the soil dry, and renders it capable of being culti- 
vated three weeks sooner than other shallow land ; that it 
avoids stiffness, and, on the contrary, the high ridges, being 
frozen through in the winter, are found very mellow in 
the spring. I cannot deny that in autumn this requires 
four kinds of ploughs, (the two last of which may certainly 
be considered as only half kinds of ploughs,) instead of one 
kind, generally used on large farms. Moreover, this depth 
of mould cannot be obtained in less than ten years, when, 
at the sameHime, the disadvantage of an inferior subsoil 
can be repaired by manure, which will add about one 
inch of mould in a year — a method quite impossible on 
large farms, and on small ones attainable only by a pro- 
prietor, and never by a farmer. 

" These high furrows are separated in the spring with 
the four-horse split plough : if the land is quite clean, it 
may, after being harrowed in the manner which will be 
mentioned hereafter, be immediately sown ; but if it is 
not, it is hooked [harrowed] crosswise. 

" 4. All the land which is not rayolt [trench-ploughed] 
— because there remains from the preceding harvest too 
much manure on the surface, which, if the next crop 
should want it, must not be removed too far, is, if it bears 
no manure crop, ploughed in autumn, first shallow, then 
deep, and lastly laid in high furrows. In spring, in which 
there is as little ploughing as possible, it is, after the split- 
ting, according to the necessity of the crop and soil, first 
harrowed, and then hooked crosswise, or only harrowed 
in the manner prescribed. 

"5. It is a principal maxim to sow a green crop for 
ploughing in, in the rape-seed stubble, as well as in the 
corn stubble, where no clover has been sown. In August, 
I use for this purpose rape-seed ; in the beginning of Sep- 
tember, turnips ; from the middle of September to the 
middle of October, rye ; then there is but one ploughing 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 119 

in autumn, a method which I recommend on large 
farms. 

" The manure crop is in the spring shallowly rayoh 
in, and is equal in its effects to 3.914 to 5.811 loads 
of manure per acre. 

''6. One observation which leads to the most impor- 
tant results, was the certain conviction, that it is the vital 
power of plants, which, by the incomprehensible faculty 
of decomposition and assimilation, by means of their 
leaves and stalks, constantly imbibe an incredible quanti- 
ty of substances, in the shape of gases and manures, and 
convert them into their own elements, rejecting what 
they do not want, changing what they have received into 
a new body, and so continuing until they have formed 
their blossoms ; that the root, which till then keeps grow- 
ing and oozing out moisture, only begins when its growth 
is perfected powerfully to decompose that which surrounds 
it, and alone supports the fruit, whilst the leaves and stalks 
are fading ; that the vital point of the plant has its seat 
exactly in the centre of the germ, from which it forces 
the root into the earth, and the stalk upwards ; that every 
thing depends, in the first growth of the plant, on keeping 
this point in health and activity ; that this should be done 
in sowing, 

" 1st. When the surface is as much as possible pulver- 
ized, in order that the seed-corn or potato-shoot should 
be surrounded by, or rather laid on earth finely divided, 
in which the fibres of the root may quickly shoot, and 
where air, moisture, and warmth may operate with facility. 

" 2d. When the shoot, lying on such a pulverized sur- 
face, is covered only a couple of fines, in order that 
light, air, warmth, dew, and other atmospheric moistures 
may immediately excite the vitality in this point, and 
thereby promote the developement of the germ and pro- 
cure nourishment to the first leaf. 

" I refer, with regard to this, especially, to the speci- 
mens of dried plants kept ready for the inspection of the 
visiters, which so strikingly show what difiterence there is 
in the vital germ lying on the surface, where roots and 
leaves immediately, numerously, and powerfully shoot 



120 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

from one point, and the weakened vital germ, which, ly- 
ing at the depth of 1.680 inches, shoots forth few roots, 
but a thin tube, which rises as far as the surface, where 
the knot is formed, whence the weakened germ pushes 
forth a single and sickly plant. 

'' The result of this observation was, that we took 
every possible pains to give the surface, to a depth of from 
1.880 to 2.820 inches, the necessary state of pulveriza- 
tion, to divide the thickly-sown seed equally upon it, and 
to give it as thin a covering of the pulverized soil as pos- 
sible. But for this we were entirely without imple- 
ments. 

" The grubber, indeed, gave looseness to the surface, 
but did not destroy the small clods. The roller pressed 
the soil too firmly, and, if it happened to rain, a fresh pro- 
cess became necessary. The usual harrow, with teeth 
6.580 inches apart, drew, in a ground previously har- 
rowed, lines in which seed sown by the best sower would 
fall, and then stand too thickly, while a surface of 2.280 
inches was. left between these lines, which contained kw 
plants, but became a nursery for weeds. 

" Then it occurred to us, (after the usual grubbing and 
harrowing,) to pass with the iron Mecklenburgh harrow 
reversed, the upper side of it being flat upon the surface, 
till all the small clods were pressed into a powder ; then 
I had harrows made, the teeth of which are only from 
1.410 to 1.880 inches wide apart, and in the Flemish 
fashion, placed in a slanting angle. With these we passed 
sharply over this finely-pressed soil, with the horse fas- 
tened to the middle, and afterwards to one corner, after 
which we sowed. The corn came to lie in lines 1.410 
inches apart, and was harrowed in crosswise, with the 
drag teeth of the close harrow,* and by this means the 
seed was slightly covered, and not again displaced. 

'' By this mode of cultivation, it was found that every 
germ immediately shot forth strong roots and several stems 
at once ; and an experience of several years has shown 
an increase of produce of from 20 to 30 per cent, occa- 

* With the teeth slanting forward. They are called drags when 
the teeth slant backwards. 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 121 

sioned by it, as we continued to cultivate a piece of ground 
next to it in tiie usual manner. 

"7. I must further mention, as the last, but not less 
important principle and cause of success, that each of the 
manured fields has been brought to that point of fertility 
in which it can yield the greatest produce ; so that with 
less manure, it would not yield its full produce, and more 
manure would cause the crops to lie down, even if the 
year was not wet. The difficulty of being able to fix 
this point, for every field and kind of crop, with certainty, 
was removed by the now perfected geometrical method 
by which, with the help of a scale formed on twenty years' 
experience, the degree of productiveness may be marked, 
in which the field has been left in the last crops ; i. e., 
seldom below 100 degrees, which denotes a field capable 
of yielding 24.02 bushels of wheat per acre, and below 
which it is not advisable to let a field sink." 

Jethro Tull and his disciples maintained, that the great 
secret of inducing fertility, consisted in minutely dividing 
and pulverizing the soil by culture ; and John Taylor, 
the Arator of Virginia, and an excellent practical as well 
as scientific farmer, considered the atmosphere as the 
great store-house for vegetable food, where it exists in a 
gaseous form. The good tillage we advocate embraces 
all the advantages of Tull's and Taylor's theories, with- 
out lessening the importance which we attach to barn-yard 
manure. 

The deep ploughing of dry land, or the breaking up 
and stirring of the subsoil, promotes fertility, by increas- 
ing the power of the land to absorb water by cohesive 
attraction. " The power of soils to absorb water from 
air," says Davy, " is much connected with fertility. This 
power depends in a great measure upon the state of di- 
vision of its parts ; the more divided they are, the greater 
their absorbent power. When this power is great, the 
plant is supplied with moisture in dry seasons ; and the 
effect of evaporation in the day is counteracted by the 
absorption of aqueous vapors from the atmosphere, by 
"the interior parts of the soil, during the day, and by both 
the exterior and interior during the night." The soil im- 

11 XV. 



122 PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 

bibes heat earlier in the spring, and retains it later in au- 
tumn, in proportion as it is dry and deep, — a matter of 
high consideration in cold climates, where the length of 
the summer scarcely suffices to mature the crops. The 
quality and dryness being the same, a soil is fertile and 
durable nearly in proportion to the depth of the tillage 
which it receives ; six inches giving nearly double the 
pasture for plants that a three-inch stratum does — and a 
twelve-inch tilth greatly exceeding in productiveness one 
of only six inches. Von Thaer calculates this difference 
in proportionate degrees in lands which contain a vegeta- 
tive stratum of soil of four, six, eight, and twelve inches 
in depth, provided, of course, that it be all of equal qual- 
ity. If, therefore, each seed were to produce a plant, 
it would follow that ground which contains eight inches 
of depth of fertile mould, might be sown with double the 
quantity of that which consists of only four inches. He, 
however, admits, that this principle cannot be carried to 
that extent, because the action of the atmosphere must 
ever afford that superiority to the surface, that a cubic 
foot of mould, if divided into two square feet, will always 
produce a greater number of plants than if the seed were 
sown upon one foot superficial ; but he assumes the value 
of the land to be increased, in the proportion of eight per 
cent. , for every inch of mould beyond the depth of six to 
ten inches, and to be diminished, in the same proportion, 
from six to three inches, in soils of a thinner staple. 
Principes Raisonnes d^ Jig . ^ vol. iii. p. 138, §735. These 
considerations have been hitherto but httle regarded in 
our practice, though they constitute an important feature 
in the new system of husbandry. 

Good tillage demands, also, the extirpation of weeds. 
Every plant which grows upon a soil tends to impair its 
fertility, and weeds more than cultivated crops, because 
they are generally the most hardy, and the greatest con- 
sumers of vegetable food. They are particularly preju- 
dicial to crops in a dry season, as they exhaust the soil 
of moisture in proportion to their superficies, or the sur- 
face of their stems and leaves, some species transpiring 
their weight of moisture every twenty-four hours. The 



PRINCIPLES OF TILLAGE. 123 

drill culture and deep ploughing both lessen the evil of 
weeds ; the first tends to destroy them, and the latter to 
bury their seeds so deep, as to prevent the plants getting 
ahead of, and choking, the young crop. Clean tillage has 
been too much neglected in our practice. Many crops 
are diminished a fourth, a third, a half, by pestiferous 
weeds which are permitted to seed and propagate upon 
the land. 

In regard to some troublesome perennials, as Canada 
thistles, wild onions, quack grass, daisies, &c., the best 
means of destroying them is, to prevent the growth of 
leaves, their elaborating organs, which concoct and pre- 
pare their food. This is done by frequent summer plough- 
ings, or by a succession of well-cultivated hoed crops. 
Good tillage requires good implements, and these to be 
kept in order, that the farm-work may be economically 
done, and well done, and done at the proper time. The 
disparity between old and new implements of culture is 
great, not only in the time employed, but in the manner 
in which they do their work, and in the power required 
to perform it. The old plough required a four-cattle 
team, and two hands, to manage it, and the work ordi- 
narily was but half executed. The improved plough is 
generally propelled by two cattle, requires but one man 
to manage it, and, when properly governed, performs 
thorough work. Harrows and other implements have un- 
dergone a like improvement. Besides, new implements, 
which greatly economize the labor of tillage, are coming 
into use, as the roller, cultivator, drill-barrow, &c., so that 
a farm may now be worked with half the expense of 
labor that it was wont to be worked forty years ago, and 
may be better worked withal. Mind, likewise, where it 
is put in requisition, and enlightened by science, is doing 
ten times more in aid of agricultural labor than it formerly 
did. 

If we revert to old, and, in many cases, present prac- 
tices, we shall perceive, that thorough tillage has not been 
sufficiently attended to. Our implements have been de- 
fective, and the manner of using them often imperfect. 
Good ploughing is all-important to good farming, and still 



124 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

there is no labor upon the farm that has been more im- 
perfectly performed, than this generally has been. Light 
soils seldom require but a single ploughing for the seed, 
if well executed ; but if badly executed, two ploughings 
are too little. Our implements are, however, daily im- 
proving ; the importance of good tillage is becoming more 
and more apparent, and our practical knowledge is in- 
creasing. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

There are six prominent objects to be effected by til- 
lage ; viz., 

1 . To break up the entire surface-stratum of soil, there- 
by to render it permeable to the agents of vegetable nu- 
trition and growth, and the roots of plants. 

2. To giv^e the greatest exposure of surface to the ame- 
liorating influence of the atmosphere. 

3. To induce a pulverization of the soil, that seeds 
may more readily germinate and grow, and air and moist- 
ure more freely circulate in it. 

4. To destroy weeds and foreign plants, that rob the 
crop of food, and choke its growth. 

5. To effect an economical distribution of the dung, 
the food of the crop, by blending and incorporating it with 
the soil. 

6. To bury the seed of the intended crop. 

The principal implements employed in the operation 
of tillage are, the Plough, Harrow, Roller, Cultivator, and 
Drill. 

§1. The Plough. 

In order to profit from the excellent illustrations of 
Professor Low, in the use of the Plough, we shall copy 
this writer's remarks from his Elements of Practical Ag- 
riculture. 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



125 



' ' By means of this instrument the earth is to be turned 
over to a given depth ; and this is to be effected by cut- 
ting from the ground successive sods or shces of earth, 
so that each sod or shce shall be raised up or turned over, 
in such a manner that an entirely new surface shall be ex- 
posed to the atmosphere." 

In this mode of laying the furrow, it will be perceived, 
the largest surface is exposed to the enriching influence 
of the atmosphere — viz., one entire edge, and most of 
both the upper and under surfaces of the furrow-shce. 

In fig. 14, let A B C D represent the end or trans- 
verse section of the slice of earth which is to be turned 
over. 



Fig. 14. 



Fig. 1.5. 



Fig. 16. 




The slice is first to be raised from the position in which 
it lies in fig. 14 ; it is next to be placed in the position 
shown in fig. 15, and it is finally to be placed in that 
represented in fig. 16. 

" In the following diagram, fig. 17, let A B C D, 
corresponding with the same letters in the last figures, 
represent a transverse section of the slice of earth which 
is to be turned over. This shce is first to be raised from 
its horizontal position A B C D, by being turned upon 
its corner C as a pivot, and placed in the position 
C E F G, corresponding with that of fig. 15 ; it is then 
to be turned upon its corner G, as upon a pivot, and laid in 
11* 



126 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



the position G H I K, corresponding with that of fig. 16. 
In this manner the side D C, which was formerly un- 
derneath, will be above, namely, in the position H I ; 
and if successive slices be thus reversed, they will rest 
upon each other in the manner shown by the section of 
the slices P Q R S, O L M N, and G H I K. 

Fig. 17. 




" The angle of inclination at which these different 
slices will naturally rest upon each other in the manner 
shown in the figure, will depend upon the proportion which 
the width of the slices bears to their depth ; and that the 
greatest extent of surface may be exposed to the air, the 
angle of their inclination will be 45°. In order, there- 
fore, that the shoes may be at this angle, the proportion 
which the width of the slices bears to their depth is to be 
determined ; and this can be done by simple calculation ; 
for it can be shown that, the width of the slice A B being 
the hypotenuse of an isosceles right-angled triangle, the 
depth of the slice B C will be one of the sides. Sup- 
posing, therefore, the width of the sod A B to be ten 
inches, the depth B C will, by calculation, be 7.071 
inches. 

'' If, then, beginning at one side of a field, we shall cut 
off a shoe of earth, the entire length of this field, and place 
it in the position P Q R S, fig. 17, and then cut off a 
second slice, and place it in the position of O L M N, 
and then a third shce, and place it in the position 
G H I K, and so on, the various slices will rest upon 
each other at a given angle, in the manner represented. 

*' A similar operation is to be performed by the plough. 
Beginning at the right-hand side of the field or ridge to 
be ploughed, a sod, which we shall now call a furrow- 
slice, is to be cut from the firm ground, raised up and 
turned over, and so on. In this manner, an entire new 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



127 



surface will be exposed to the atmosphere, and the suc- 
cessive furrow-slices laid resting upon each other, thus : — 

Fig. 18. 




'' An essential property of the plough is, that it shall 
move in the earth with a steady motion ; and the giving 
to it the force and combination of parts necessary for that 
purpose is one of the main difficulties attending its con- 
struction. 

" Were it ascertained, by experiment on the plough 
when at work, at a given depth of furrow, and in soil of 
a given texture, that a cord attached to any point A, fig. 
19, and drawn in the oblique direction A B, would so 

Fig. 19. 




pull forward the plough, that it should press uniformly 
upon the earth at all points, from C to D, so that the 
share should neither tend to point upwards or downwards, 
but should move horizontally forward, then it is to some 
part of this line that the moving power should be applied ; 
and further, it is known from the principles of mechanics, 
that it matters not, in so far as regards the force exerted. 



128 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

to what precise part of this Hne the power is apphed. 
Now, without entering into any mathematical investigation 
of the principles upon which this line is to be determined, 
it is to be observed, that in a well-made plough, formed 
on the principles pointed out, this line, drawn from the 
usual point of detachment of the draught on the collars 
of the working cattle, will intersect the sole of the plough 
at E, a little behind the setting of the share, and a little 
to the right of the plane of the left side of the instrument. 

" Now, knowing the height at which the point of draught 
is to be attached to the shoulders of the working cattle, 
let us suppose 4 feet, and the distance from the point of 
the share at which the animals of draught can be conve- 
niently yoked, let us suppose 12 feet, then laying off 
D F 12 feet, and F B 4 feet, and drawing B E ; it fol- 
lows that the point at the end of the beam, is that to which 
the draught is attached. 

" But the angle which the line E B forms with the 
surface, is not, as can be shown, constant, but varies with 
the depth ploughed, and the tenacity of the soil. That 
the instrument may suit itself to these variations, as well 
as that any defects in the form of its parts may be coun- 
teracted, and that the line of draught may be placed in 
that portion which is required to pull forward the plough, 
without there being any tendency in the share to sink into 
the ground or rise out of it, the bridle is fixed at the end 
of the beam, so as to elevate or depress the line of draught, 
as may be required. Should the plough, for example, 
tend to go deeper into the earth, the line of draught is to 
be lowered, by means of the bridle, so that it shall form 
a greater angle B G F ; the effect of which will be to 
counteract the tendency which the plough has to go deep- 
er. The same effect will be produced by shortening the 
traces by which the horses are attached to the draught, 
and thus increasing the angle. In like manner, by means 
of the bridle, the point of draught can be shifted to the 
right or to the left. If the point of the share tends to 
point to the left hand, in the firm ground, the line of draught 
is shifted more to the left ; and if to the right hand, it is 
shifted more to the right. This adjusting of the plough's 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 129 

motion is easy, and is performed by the ploughman, until 
he feels that the plough continues to swim fair^ to use his 
own technical language, that is, until he feels, which he 
does at once, that it continues to move horizontally for- 
ward, without any tendency to turn to the right or left, 
or to rise from the earth or to sink into it. A well-con- 
structed plough of this kind, therefore, needs no wheels 
or other devices to steady its motion ; the effect being 
produced by merely altering the line of draught. 

" In ploughing, it has been seen, a sHce of earth is to 
be cut from the left-hand side, and to be turned over to 
the right-hand side. In this operation, the left-hand or 
near-side horse walks on the ground not yet ploughed, the 
right-hand or ofF-side horse walks in the furrow last made, 
and the workman follows holding the handles of the plough. 
By means of these handles he guides the plough, and he 
directs the animals of draught by the voice and the reins. 
When he is to turn the plough at the end of the ridge, or 
when it encounters an obstacle, as a large stone, he presses 
down the handles, so that the heel of the plough becomes 
a fulcrum, and the share is raised out of the ground. 

"In ploughing, the instrument ought to be held vertically. 
If it is inclined to the left-hand side, the same work is 
performed in appearance, though not in reality, a portion 
of the ground below not being tilled at all, but left thus : 

Fig. 20. 



" The plough is of the most perfect form, when its 
various parts are so adjusted that they shall not oppose 
each other's motion ; but it is very difficult to form a 
plough that is perfect in its form and the combination of its 
parts. Even in those of the best construction, there is 
frequently found to be a tendency to rise out of the ground, 
or to turn to one side, generally the right-hand or open 
side. The tendency to rise out of the ground can be 
corrected by giving an inclination downwards to the point 
of the share, and the tendency to turn to the open or right- 
hand side can be corrected by turning the point of the 



130 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

share slightly to the left-hand side. By these means, 
however, the labor of draught is increased, and care must 
therefore be taken that this tempering of the irons, as it 
is frequently called, be not in any case carried further than 
is necessary to correct the defects of the instrument. All 
that is necessary beyond this is effected by changing the 
position of the line of draught, by means of the bridle on 
the beam. 

'' With regard to the depth to be ploughed, this, we 
shall see in the sequel, depends upon the kind of crop to 
be cultivated, and other circumstances. It has been 
shown that a furrow-slice of ten inches in width requires a 
depth of seven inches, that is, a depth of about two thirds 
of the width, in order that it may lie at the angle of 45°. 
But, although it is necessary to proceed upon this prin- 
ciple in forming a plough, we cannot regulate the width 
to the depth in this manner in practice. It is not neces- 
sary that the depth should be to the width in the propor- 
tion of two to three, or that the sod should be precisely 
at the angle of 45°. In the field, all that can be arrived 
at is a kind of approximation to the true proportions. 
When the sods are considerably too wide in proportion 
to their depth, the ploughman will be admonished of this 
by their lying too flat, and too slightly overlapping each 
other. When their depth is considerably too great in 
proportion to their width, they will stand too upright, and 
be apt to fall back again into the furrow. 

" The medium depth of good ploughing may be held 
to be seven inches. When circumstances, as the kind 
of crop, and the nature of the soil, do not require deep 
ploughing, the depth may be less ; but it will be consid- 
erable in those cases to be afterwards adverted to, when 
deep ploughing is from any cause expedient. 

" In the moist cHmate of Britain, and indeed in 
most parts of Europe, it is necessary to form the ground 
into what are termed ridges, so as to admit of the water 
which falls upon the surface finding a ready egress. And 
even in lands so dry that little injury will result from stag- 
nating water, such ridges are generally formed, on account 
of their convenience in the different modes of tillage. 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



131 



" The first operation in the formation of ridges is stri- 
king the furrows. 

" Let it be supposed that afield has been laid level by 
previous ploughings, and that, the marks of former ridges 
being obliterated, the lines of the new ones are to be laid 
out. The usual breadth of ridges is from fifteen to eighteen 
feet, and sometimes more. We may assume, in the follow- 
ing descriptions, fifteen feet to be the width of the ridge. 

"Let a steady ploughman be furnished with three or 
more poles of wood shod with iron, eight or nine feet in 
length, and divided into feet and half feet. The first op- 
eration is to mark oiF, at two sides of the field, what is 
termed a head-land. This is merely a ridge formed par- 
allel to the side of the field, on which the horses are to 
turn, to afford sufiicient space for which, these ridges may 
be eighteen feet wide. The lines of them are marked 
off before the other ridges, in order that the ploughman 
may know when to turn his horses. After the rest of the 
field is ploughed, the head-lands themselves are ploughed 
and turned into ridges. 

"In the following diagram, fig. 21, representing a 
field, letE F, G H, represent the lines of the head-lands, 
drawn parallel to A B, and C D, the sides or boundaries 
of the field, and at the distance from each of these sides 
of eighteen feet. These lines the ploughman marks out, 
by running a straight furrow with his plough parallel to 
the two sides. 











Fig 


. 21. 










B 


/ s c 


G 


















b 


F 
C 












e 








g d a 



132 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

" Let him now, beginning at the two sides of the field, 
A D, parallel to which it is intended to run the ridges, 
measure off with his pole E a, seven and a half feet. At 
the point a, let him place one of his poles. This is the 
point at which he is to enter his plough. But, leaving his 
horses in the mean time, let him walk on to a convenient 
distance, as to I, and then in like manner measuring off 
I Z>, seven and a half feet, let him set up his second pole 
at 6, and then, at the further end of the field, on the line 
of the head-land, at c, let him place his third pole. He 
has now three poles placed in a line ; but if, from the length 
of the field, or irregularities of the sm-face, more than three 
poles are necessary, more must be used, as there must 
be so many poles in sight, that the ploughman may be 
enabled to direct his plough, by means of them, in a straight 
line. He now returns to his plough, and enters it at the 
first pole at a, keeping the other two poles in a line, so 
that he may be enabled to plough directly towards them. 
Having entered his plough at a, he stops his horses and 
measures off fifteen feet to c/, where he plants the pole. 
He then returns to his plough, which is standing at a, and 
drives his horses, keeping the two poles before him as a 
guide, to the second pole, b. Having done this, and leav- 
ing his plough standing at 6, he measures off from b to c, 
fifteen feet, and there he plants his pole. He then returns 
to his plough, and proceeds forward, making his furrow 
in a straight line to the last pole at c, where in like man- 
ner he stops his horses, and measuring off fifteen feet, he 
plants his pole at/. 

" In this manner he has placed his poles in a straight 
line, at the distance of fifteen feet from the last position, 
and parallel, as before, to the line of fence. He now turns 
his horses short about, and returns by the furrow he has 
just drawn, c b a. By this second ploughing he throws 
the earth out in an opposite direction, so that he has 
formed a completely open furrow. In returning, he takes 
care to correct any irregularity or crookedness which may 
have taken place through the unsteady motion of the horses 
in his first track. 

" The poles being now placed in a line c? e /, he brings 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 133 

his plough to c?, enters it, and stops it there. He meas- 
ures off fifteen feet from d to g, and fixes his pole at g ; 
and then he proceeds with his plough to e and /, repeating 
the same operation with the poles as before, and returning 
by the track of the last-made furrow from / to d. In this 
manner he proceeds throughout the whole-field, forming 
open parallel furrows, at the distance from each other of 
fifteen feet ; these furrows are to form the centres of the 
future ridges. 

" The field is now prepared for being ploughed into 
ridges, and the manner of doing so is this : — 

" The ploughman, beginning at the left-hand side of the 
open furrow, ploughs his first furrow-slice towards it. He 
then, returning by the opposite side, performs the same 
operation, causing the two first furrow-slices to rest upon 
each other. 

" Thus, in forming his first ridge, he begins at the side 
of «, and ploughing in the direction of a to c, he turns his 
first furrow-slice into the open furrow a c. When he ar- 
rives at c, he turns his plough right about ; and returning 
from c to a, he lays his second furrow-shce upon the first 
one, as at C, fig. 21. 

" In this manner he continues, always turning to the 
right-hand side, and laying his furrow-slices towards the 
centre of the ridge, until he has reached the boundary of 
the ridge, E H, on the one side, and the line o s, half 
way between c a and d /, on the other. He has thus 
formed a ridge, of which c a is the crown or centre, and 
H E and o s the termination. By proceeding in this 
manner tliroughout the field, the whole is formed into 
ridges, of which the first-marked furrows are the centres. 

" It has been said that the ploughman continues turn- 
ing his horses to the right, and that thus, having proceeded 
from a to c, he returns from c to «, and so on, always 
ploughing round a c as a central fine. When, however, 
he has proceeded from a to c, he may turn his horses 
left about, and return from /to d, and so on, always lay- 
ing his furrow-slices towards a c and / c?, respectively. 
In this manner he will have ploughed the half of two 
adjoining ridges, and terminated at the space o 5, half 
12 XV. 



134 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



way between them. This method of ploughing, it will 
appear, has the same effect as turning the horses right 
about, and is the most frequent and convenient in prac- 
tice. 

" In the following figure, 22, in which C C, C C, C C 
are the centres of the ridges, the manner in which the 
successive furrow-slices have been laid upon each other 
is shown. 

Fig. 22. 




" By this laying of the earth towards the centres, the 
ridges acquire a certain curvature. By ploughing the 
earth away from the intervals D E, F G, the ground is 
hollowed at these parts, which now forms the open furrows. 
It is by these open furrows that the water which falls 
upon the surface finds a passage. 

" A certain, though not a great, degree of curvature, 
is given to the ridge by this ploughing. It is frequently, 
however, necessary to give it a yet greater degree of cur- 
vature and elevation. This is done by ploughing the 
whole ridge a second time, and in a similar manner. 

" The plough is first driven along the centre of the 
ridge from C to C, forming an open furrow. Successive 
furrow-slices are then laid towards this furrow, in the 
same manner as in the previous ploughing. This is done 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 135 

with the successive furrow-shces, until the plough reaches 
the open furrows D E, F G. In this manner the whole 
ridge is ploughed, and an increased elevation and curva- 
ture given to it. This operation is termed gathering. 

' ' In performing the operation of gathering, it is impor- 
tant that the ridge be formed with a uniform curvature, so 
that it shall not have what is technically termed a shoul- 
der, or hollow part, on each side of the crown. It is to 
prevent this defect, that the open track is made along the 
crown before the first two slices are laid together ; by 
which means the ploughman is better enabled to lay them 
upon each other in such a manner that they shall not over- 
lap and form a protuberance at the crown of the ridge. 
A transverse section of the ridges, when gathered, will 
appear thus : — 

Fig. 23. 



" A ridge, however, being already formed, it may be 
wished to plough it again, and yet to preserve it at the 
same curvature and elevation. In this case, the plough 
is to enter at the open furrow, and to lay the successive 
furrow-slices towards it, until the two adjoining ridges are 
ploughed. By this means all the shoes of the same ridge 
lie in the same direction, and the curvature and elevation 
of the whole remain as before. This operation is termed 
casting, and the manner in which the furrow-slices rest 
upon each other will appear in fig. 23. 

" In the same operation of casting, two methods may 
be pursued. The two first furrow-slices, as those at E 
and Cj may be laid resting upon each other, as in fig. 
24, in which case the two ridges will be formed, as it 

Fig. 24. 



3 

were, into one large ridge ; or else, the open furrow at 
E may be preserved by keeping the two first furrow-slices 



136 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

at a little distance from each other, and preserving the 
space between them, as in fig. 25. 

Fig. 25. 

B C E C G 

'' When land is ploughed in this manner, the ground is 
taken from one side of each two adjoining ridges at G, 
and laid towards the other, E ; that is, it is gathered 
towards one side and gathered from the other. In this 
manner the ground at the open furrow G, from which 
we gather, becomes more bare of earth than the open 
furrow E, towards which we gather. This is an imper- 
fection unavoidable in casting a ridge. When, therefore, 
we wish to cast a ridge twice in succession, we reverse 
the former mode of ploughing ; we gather towards the 
open furrow G, and from the open furrow E, and thus 
the ridge is restored to its former state. 

*' Another method of ploughing is cleaving. In this 
case, the plough commences at the open furrow, lays the 
first sHce tow^ards it, and then, returning by the other side 
of the open furrow, lays the second slice upon the first, 
as in fig. 26. When it has reached the centre, it stops 
Fig. 26. 

B C E C G 

and begins with another pair of ridges, and ploughs the 
half of each pair together in the same manner. In this 
way the open furrows of the ridges become the centres, 
and the former centres become the open furrows. The 
operation of cleaving is of constant occurrence in the 
summer-fallow, and other cleaving processes of tillage. 
When we wish to level a ridge, we cleave it. 

" There are two variations to be noticed in the prac- 
tice of cleaving : either the two first slices are laid togeth- 
er, in which case the open furrows of the former ridges 
become the centres, and the former centres the open 
furrows, in the manner shown in fig. 26 ; or a certain 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



137 



distance is kept between the two first slices, and so the 
open furrow is preserved. In this case, each ridge is 
split into two ridges, and the number of open furrows is 
doubled. See fig. 27. 

Fig. 27. 



'' The next method of ploughing is cross-ploughing. 
This, as the name denotes, is ploughing in a direc- 
tion crossing that of the former ridges and furrows. 



Fiff. 28. 



" In cross-ploughing, the workmen place themselves at 
equal distances from each other, as thirty or forty yards, 
at the side of the field at which they are to begin to 
plough. Each then runs a straight furrow across the field, 
as, fig. 28, from A to D, from B to E, from C to F. 
Each then returns as from D to A, from E to B, from 
F to C, laying always the successive furrow-slices to- 
wards the right hand, until each man arrives at the ter- 
mination of his allotted space, xx^x x^xx^xx. There has 
been thus formed by each workman one great ridge, but 
so extended that it may be said to be without curvature. 
The ploughmen, we perceive, turn from left to right 
around the first furrows, A D, B E, C F. But they may 
also turn from right to left. Thus, in going from B toE, 
the ploughman lays his first furrow-slice to the right hand. 
When he arrives at E, he may turn his horses left about, 
and proceed to D, and returning from D to A, lay his first 
furrow-slice to the right hand towards T> A. Turning left 
12* 



138 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

about when at A, he proceeds in the direction B E, and 
SO on, always turning left about, until he has arrived at the 
middle space o, when the whole space A D and B E will 
have been ploughed. 

" Sometimes, for convenience, and the saving of dis- 
tance, he may plough in the first place round the central 
line BE, by turning from left to right, and then plough 
the remainder of the interval by turning from right to left. 

" These are matters of detail somewhat difficult to be 
described clearly, but so simple in themselves that they 
need only to be seen in the field, to be thoroughly under- 
stood. 

" The first operation, we have seen, is, striking the 
furrows previous to forming the ridges. This is done by 
laying off, by means of furrows, first the lines of the head- 
lands, and then the parallel lines corresponding to the fu- 
ture centres of the ridges to be formed. 

" The next operation is forming the ridges. This is 
done by beginning at the centre, and ploughing towards 
it, until each ridge is formed. 

" When ridges are formed, they may subsequently be 
ploughed in different ways. 

" First J they may be gathered ; in which case, begin- 
ning at the crown, the ridge is ploughed, and an increased 
elevation given to it. 

" Second^ they maybe cast ; in which case, two ridges 
are ploughed together, and either formed into one large 
ridge, or, by keeping the open furrows clear, retained in 
two ridges. 

" Third, they may be cloven ; in which case, begin- 
ning at the open furrows, the half of each adjoining ridge 
is laid together. The first two furrow-shces may either 
be laid close together, or the open furrow may be kept 
clear between them. In the first case, each ridge will 
have been so cloven, that the open furrow shall have be- 
come the crown, and the crown the open furrow. In 
the second, each ridge will have been cloven into two, 
and the number of ridges and open furrows doubled. 

" In the original laying out of the ridges, the lines 
have been described as running straight through the field ; 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 139 

but it is frequently expedient, on account of the irregular- 
ities of the surface or other causes, to change the direc- 
tion of the ridges at some part of the field, so as to 
facilitate the discharge of the water. 

" The appHcation to this case* of the principle of stri- 
king the furrow is easy. The ploughman makes a furrow 
where the change of direction is to take place, straight or 
curved, as circumstances may require. The one set of 
ridges terminate at this part, and the others are laid off 
from it in the new direction to be given. The plough- 
man, by means of his poles, as before, strikes his first set 
of furrows, terminating them at the furrow where the 
change of direction is to take place. From this furrow 
he strikes his second set of furrows in the direction in 
which they are to run. The part where the opposite set of 
furrows meet, maybe made an open furrow, or a raised- 
up ridge, or head-land, as circumstances may require. 

" The direction of the ridges must generally be regula- 
ted by the sloping of the fields, and the lying of ditches 
and fences, so that they may promote the main purpose 
for which they are formed, the carrying off of surface- 
water. But, other circumstances being alike, they should 
be made to lie as much as possible north and south, and 
as rarely as possible east and west ; for, in the latter case, 
when the ridges are much elevated, the north side has a 
somewhat less favorable exposure than the south side. 

" Sometimes ridges are altogether dispensed with, 
either where the land is very dry, or where it is wished to 
keep it in grass, and give it the aspect of a park or lawn. 
In this case, the ploughs may either follow each other round 
the entire field, and terminate at the centre, or they may 
plough in large divisions, as in the case of cross-ploughing. 

" In ploughing very steep land, it is frequently laid in 
ridges diagonally across the slope, for the purpose of 
rendering the labor more easy, and of lessening the dan- 
ger of torrents carrying away the surface. 

^'The precaution to be observed in this case is, to 
make the ridges slope upwards from the right hand, as 
from A to B, fig. 29, and not from the left hand, as 
from C to D. For in the first case, when the laboring 



140 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE- 

cattle are ascending the steep, the plough is throwing the 
furrow-slice down hill ; whereas, in the other case, when 
the cattle are ascending, they are raising the furrow-shce 
up hill, by which their labor is greatly increased. 

Fig. 29. 




'' Besides the open furrows of the ridges, which act 
as channels for carrying off the water, it is necessary, 
when there are hollow places where water may stagnate, 
to form open furrows or channels. This .is done by draw- 
ing a furrow with the plough in the direction most con- 
venient for the purpose. A workman then follows with 
a spade or shovel, and carefully opens intersections with 
other furrows, so that there may be a free communica- 
tion between them. 

" Sometimes it is necessary that the furrow made by the 
plough be further deepened by the spade, so as to form a 
channel sufficiently large ; and wherever head-lands in- 
tersect the run of water, channels must be cut through 
them to the ditch or outlet, so that none may stagnate 
upon the ground. Attention to these details in practice 
is essential in all cases of tillage ; and it manifests a want 
of skill and industrious habits in the farmer to suffer his 
lands to be unproductive by the stagnating upon them of 
surface-water." — Professor Low^s Elements of Practical 
Agriculture. 

It has been ascertained, that a team, w^alking at the rate 
of one and a half miles an hour, will plough the following 
quantity of a medium soil, to the depth of five inches, in 

nine hours : 

A. R. P. 

Breadth of furrow 8 inches, at 1 J an hour, 1 00 

cc 9 u u "10 20 

" 8 '^ 2 " 1 1 10 

u 9 c( cc ''12 00 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 141 

The difference in the quantity ploughed in these in- 
stances clearly demonstrates the value of action in horses ; 
but it must at the same time be observed, that the dis- 
tance travelled at the slow pace is only twelve, while at 
the quicker rate it is sixteen miles. 

We will close the subject of ploughing, with the fol- 
lowing 

§ 2. Rules for Ploughmen, 

1st. The horses should be harnessed as near to the 
plough as they can be placed without impeding the free- 
dom of their step ; for the closer they are to the point of 
draught, the less exertion will be required to overcome 
the resistance. 

2d. When ploughing with a pair abreast, the most 
powerful horse should be worked in the furrow ; but if the 
team be harnessed in line, and there be any difference in 
the height of the cattle, the tallest should be put fore- 
most, if he be in every respect equal to the other. 

3d. When at work, they should be kept going at as 
regular and good a pace as the nature of the work will 
permit ; for they are thus more manageable, and the 
draught easier than when slow. By due attention to 
this, the heavy soil will cling less to the coulter, and the 
land will be found to work more freely. 

4th. The breadth and depth of the furrow being as- 
certained, the plough should be held upright, bearing 
equally all along on a straight sole, and be made to move 
forward in a regular line, without swerving to either side. 
The edge of the coulter should be set directly forward, 
so that the land-side of it may run in a parallel Hne with 
the land-side of the head, and in such a position that their 
slant or sweep may exactly correspond. 

5th. The ploughman should walk with his body as 
nearly as possible upright, without leaning on the stilts, 
and without using force to any part, further than may be 
absolutely necessary to keep the implement steadily in a 
straight hne. He should also be sparing of his voice, 
and of correction to the team : of the former, because 
too much cheering and ordering only confuses the cattle ; 



142 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

and of the latter, because punishment, when often repeat- 
ed, at length ceases to have due effect, and thus leads to 
unnecessary beating. 

There is, in fact, a certain degree of taste in plough- 
ing, as well as in every thing else, — a kind of tact, which 
is difficult to be taught, and hardly to be acquired except 
by a sort of instinct. The ploughman who tills the 
ground with dexterity, never presses upon the plough 
without necessity. A mere touch, or a glance of the eye, 
tells him when she is going wrong, and a slight turn of 
the hand sets her instantly right ; whereas a clumsy fel- 
low, without feeling in his palms, or readiness or percep- 
tion, is continually either throwing the plough out, or she 
is riding upon the heel or point, straining the team, tiring 
himself, and altogether making bad work. 

There are various modes of regulating the pitch of the 
plough. Thus, it may be made to go deeper by lower- 
ing the back-bands, or increasing the distance of the 
team ; by setting the muzzle higher up in the index of the 
beam, and by slanting and giving the coulter a greater 
rake forward ; and the reverse will make it go shallower. 
It can also be constructed with a regulating lever, which 
may be attached to any of the foot and wheel ploughs 
now in use, and can be used occasionally, or otherwise, 
as circumstances may require. The side motion may 
be thus altered so as to make the plough take a broader 
slice, or, as it is commonly called, " to give her more or 
less land :" by putting the hook of the traces into the 
notches of the muzzle more tow^ards the unploughed 
ground, you take land from the plough ; but by shifting 
it to the furrow side, you give it land. It ought, there- 
fore, to be made about eight inches in length, and may 

Fig. 30. Fig. 31. 




OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 143 

be fixed either to the side of the beam, or to the top and 
bottom, as delineated in figs. 30 and 31. 

The ploughman may also give greater breadth by press- 
ing the stilts towards the right ; though it is a bad plan, 
and requires too much exertion to be continued through- 
out a day's work. 

On the subject of draught, it may be observed, that 
when horses are properly harnessed to the plough, their 
traces will be in a direct line, from the point of draught 
at the shoulder, to the point of the share, passing through 
the regulating notch of the muzzle. It is proper, there- 
fore, to ascertain the animal's height, in order that the 
muzzle may be fixed accordingly ; but as his shoulder is 
not so far from the ground when he is pulling, as when 
he is in a state of rest, an allowance must be made for 
the difference. Thus, if a line be drawn from A, at the 
share of the plough, to B, fig. 32, and then a perpendicu- 

Fig. 32. 




lar line from B to C, at the horse's shoulder, an angle 
is formed ; then if another perpendicular line be formed 
from A to a, and measured upon the same scale, it will 
give the height of the beam from the ground, at the depth 
to which it is to be ploughed. 

It follows, therefore, that the more the beam is raised 
in height, the longer it must be made, and consequently 
the traces of horses must be lengthened : this, however, 
lessens their power ; for it is sufficiently well known, 
without entering into any mathematical proof upon the 
subject, that the further the animal is placed from his 
work, the less effectual will be his exertions. The Rev- 
erend Mr. Priest made this experiment, w^ith a furrow 



144 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

9J inches wide and 3| deep ; when the length of the 
horses' traces was 10 feet 5 inches from the point of the 
share to the point upon their shoulders upon whence they 
were drawing, the force exerted upon the point of draught 
of the plough, or the power of their draught, was only 
2| cwt. ; but when the traces were lengthened to 15 feet 
6 inches, the force exerted to draw the plough was 3J 
cwt. — See British Husbandry. 

§ 3. The Harrow. 

The uses of the Harrow are, 1st, to pulverize the 
soil ; 2d, to clean the ground of the roots of foul plants, 
as dock, quack, &c. ; and, 3d, to cover the seed. The 
triangular drag, with stout iron teeth, which is well adapt- 
ed to new lands, has been principally in use until a recent 
period ; but we are now having them of various patterns, 
and adapted to different soils and different purposes. 
Upon new lands, and upon heavy clay soils, a strong, 
heavy harrow is to be preferred, particularly in preparing 
the ground for seed. A light harrow would not do for 
either of these purposes, — it would neither tear up the 
new soil, nor pulverize the stiff one. Upon lands already 
under culture, or not stiff, square or angular harrows 
are preferred ; while upon well-worked farms of light soil, 
lighter jointed harrows, with smaller and closer-set teeth, 
and frames that will conform to inequalities of surface, 
are best, and are in all cases preferable for seed-harrows. 
A farmer, therefore, who makes pretensions to good 
management, ought to have at least one heavy harrow to 
pulverize the soil, and another and a different one to cover 
his seeds. 

In using the harrow, the teamster should understand 
the object, and take care to accomplish it. If it be to 
break down and mellow the soil, this should be done, 
though it may require one, two, or three bouts. If it 
be an object to eradicate the roots of perennial weeds, 
these should be carefully collected, as they are thrown 
to the surface, and carried off ; and if the harrow is ap- 
plied to cover seeds, every particle of the surface should 
be gone over, both ways of the field, and a smooth- 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



145 



ness and evenness of the surface effected as far as prac- 
ticable. 

In regard to the shape of the teeth, they should be 
square, with a gradual taper to the point, the fore part 
being kept straight, as in T, fig. 33. The teeth should 



Fig. 33. 




not be placed too closely together, for then they would be 
too much impeded by the obstacles opposed to them : 
they should be so disposed and drawn, that one tooth shall 
not cut in the track of another, and that one part of 
the instrument shall not be more interrupted than another : 
their number should not be too great, because their pow- 
er to penetrate into the ground will be diminished, unless 
the weight of the harrow is considerably increased : and, 
lastly, they should not be longer than necessary, because 
an unnecessary length will expose them to greater ob- 
structions, and render them more liable to split the frames 
in which they are fixed. 

Harrowing is best performed when the land is dry, 
13 XV. 



146 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



because the soil is then better pulverized, and less poached 
by the feet of the cattle. 

The harrow is often employed upon winter grain, in 
the spring, and to manifest advantage. A hght one is 
best for this purpose, as the object is merely to break and 
pulverize the surface. It is also employed, and here is 
a heavy one wanted, to scarify old meadow and pasture 
grounds, to extirpate moss, and to cover the seeds of 
grasses which may be sown to renovate them. For the 
latter purpose, as also for pulverizing stiff clays, Conck- 
lin's press-harrow, fig. 34, is an admirable instrument. 

Fig. 34. 




The harrows represented in fig. 3-3 are of the most 
approved construction, for light soils and for seeds. The 
frame is wood and the teeth are iron. 

" They are connected together in pairs by hinges. 
They consist each of four bars of wood, A B, C D, &c., 
which are joined together by an equal number of cross- 
bars of smaller dimensions, mortised through them. The 
larger bars may be 2| inches or more in width, by 3 
in depth, and the smaller 2J inches in width, by 1 in 
depth. The larger bars are placed oblique to the smaller 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 147 

bars, and to the line of the harrow's motion, and the teeth 
are inserted into them at equal distances from each other. 
This inclination is made to be such, that perpendiculars 
falling from each of the teeth upon a line L M, drawn at 
right angles to the harrow's motion, shall divide the space 
between the bars into equal parts, so that the various 
teeth, when the instrument is moved forward, shall indent 
at equal distances the surface of the ground over which 
they pass. 

" The number of teeth in each harrow is twenty, five 
being inserted in each of the larger bars. When two 
harrows, therefore, are employed together, the surface of 
the ground from L to M is indented by 40 teeth, impres- 
sing the ground at equal distances from each other, and 
covering the space of about 9 feet. The teeth may pro- 
ject below the under surface of the frame 7 or 8 inches, 
their length somewhat increasing from the hindmost to the 
foremost rows, where the oblique position of the line of 
draught tends most to elevate the harrow. The teeth 
are often inserted into the frame with a little inclination 
forward ; but this deviation from the perpendicular, if 
made at all, should be very slight, because it renders the 
harrow more apt to be impeded by the weeds or oth- 
er substances collecting in the angle between them and 
the frame. The teeth are fixed in the bars by boring 
holes with an auger of about | of an inch in diameter, 
and then drawing them firmly through. The teeth, when 
thus driven into the bars, will be retained with sufficient 
firmness. The best of the common kinds of wood for 
the larger bars, as being least liable to split, are elm, beach, 
or ash, and for the cross-bars ash. 

" The iron rods which terminate in the hinges, O, O, 
may pass through the frame-work, to give it greater 
strength. These rods keep the harrows at the distance 
required, and the hinges admit of either harrow rising or 
falling according to the inequalities of the surface. When 
thus joined, the harrows are drawn by two horses guided 
by reins, the driver walking behind, so as to be prepared 
to lift up either harrow when choked by weeds, or other- 
wise interrupted. 



148 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

§4. The Roller. 

The roller is made of iron, stone, or wood, according 
to convenience, or for the purposes for which it was in- 
tended. In American husbandry, we have no reason to 
expect, or perhaps desire, any but such as are made of 
wood, and such as any farmer, who has a moderate de- 
gree of mechanical skill, and the carpenters' tools which 
every farmer ought to keep, may readily construct. A 
sound oak log, with the frame and shafts or tongue ap- 
pended, will make a good roller. Rollers are made of dif- 
ferent lengths and sizes, varying from 15 to 30 inches in 
diameter, their length from five to ten feet, and their weight 
should be from 12 to 20 cwt. — the heavier soils requir- 
ing the heavier, and the lighter soils the lighter one. The 
weight can readily be increased by stones, or other heavy 
substances, deposited in a box to be placed upon a frame. 
The lighter kinds are made in one piece ; but the larger 
and heavier kinds are made in two pieces, with a washer 
between them, and an iron rod passing through the centre 
of both, which forms the axis upon which they revolve. 
English farmers construct on the model indicated in fig. 
35, upon the frame of which a box may be attached, either 
Fig. 35. 




to contain stones to add to the pressure of the roller, or 
to receive small stones and rubbish, gathered by the team- 
ster as he progresses, and which are to be carried off. 
The objection to the English roller is, that the power 
is not advantageously applied. We think the model delin- 
eated in fig. 36, and which is the kind generally used in the 
United States, is preferable to the other, because the draught 
is nearly in a right line from the point of draught at the col- 
lar or yoke, to the point of resistance. This may be done 
and the advantages of the box retained. It is stated by 
Low, that, comparing together two rollers with cylinders 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



149 



of unequal diameter, that with the larger cylinder will 
be more efficacious than that with the smaller cylinder, 
because a greater weight can be brought, by the exertion 
of the same force, to act upon the ground. 



Fig. 36. 




The uses and advantages of the roller are many and 
important. It is particularly serviceable in the seeding 
process, to break down the clods, pulverize and smooth 
the surface, and to press the earth to the smaller seeds, 
which otherwise often fail to germinate for lack of moisture. 
This is particularly the case with oats, barley, and grass- 
seeds. In autumn, the roller is sometimes passed over 
winter grain, with the view of counteracting the injurious 
effects of frost the following winter. In spring, it is ad- 
vantageously drawn over winter grain, as soon as the 
ground is so solid and dry as to bear the tread of the cat- 
tle without poaching it. It renders light ground more 
compact, presses the soil to the roots of the grain, and 
thus promotes its growth ; and upon all soils it closes 
the innumerable cracks and fissures which abound upon 
the occurrence of dry weather in spring, occasioned by 
the abstraction of moisture and the consequent contraction 
of the soil, — and, by partially burying the crown, causes 
grain to tiller better, that is, to send up more seed-stocks. 
13* 



150 OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 

Finally, a heavy roller is of great advantage to grass- 
grounds in the spring, by reducing irregularities of surface, 
and pressing down the plants or earth which have been 
thrown up by the frost. 

There are also rollers constructed for other purposes, as 
the spiked roller, which is used to pulverize stubborn clays 
preparatory to the wheat crop, and to scarify old mead- 
ows and pastures, as a means of renovating them, and of 
covering the seeds of grasses which may be sown thereon. 
Ohh'is descYiptionisC oncklin^ s press-harroic, fig. 34, and 
a somewhat similar implement invented at Washington. 
The common spiked roller is formed by inserting several 
rows of spikes, of cast or wrought iron, in a common hard- 
wood roller. The concave, or scalloped roller, is adapt- 
ed to the form of ridges, and a small one is often at- 
tached to the horse turnip-drill, 

§ 5. The Cultivator. 

There are now various implements in use denominated 
Cultivators, similar in their use, and frequently resembling, 
in their construction, the horse-hoes of Europe. They 
are particularly serviceable in the culture of Indian corn, 
Swedish turnips, beans, and other row and drilled crops, 
as a substitute for the plough. By passing this imple- 
ment frequently between the rows, the ground is kept 
free from weeds, and in a fine state of pulverization, while 
the manure and vegetable matter of the sod, which have 
been buried by the plough in preparing for the crop, are 
left below, where they are most efiicacious, and the roots 
of the plants are preserved from injury. The cultivator 
should be passed through a hoed crop twice at a dres- 
sing, and if the soil be stiff or grassy, it may be passed 
oftener, or repeated at short intervals. The teeth are 
of various forms, according to the purpose for which they 
are used. One of these forms is shown in fig. 37. It 
is most convenient to have teeth of different kinds, for 
instance, such as are fitted to skim the surface, and de- 
stroy weeds — others to break up and pulverize the sur- 
face ; and others, again, to gather the roots of quack and 
other perennial pests. One of our neighbors has been 



OPERATIONS OF TILLAGE. 



151 



enabled completely to eradicate quack-grass in his Indian 
corn, by the frequent use of this implement. The dif- 

Fig. 37. 




ferent kinds of teeth may be adapted to the same frame, 
.and fastened with nuts or wedges, and shifted in a few 
moments. The frames are generally made to contract 
or expand at pleasure, so that the implement may be 
graduated to different breadths. They are generally 
drawn by one horse. 

§ 6. The Drill Barrow. 

Drills are used exclusively for sowing seeds, and are 
various in their construction. They are propelled by 
manual and by horse power. The former are denominated 
drill barrows, and are generally adapted to sowing single 
rows. They are of recent introduction in American 
husbandry, and their use is principally confined to sow- 
Fig. 38. 




ing turnips, beets, &c.; and some of them, under the 
name of corn-planters, are employed in planting Indian 



152 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

corn. They are an economical implement upon the farm, 
and are particularly so where root culture has obtained 
a deserved footing. 

Drills drawn by horses, and sowing ten or a dozen 
rows at a bout, are used to a considerable extent in Great 
Britain ; and those most familiar with their use, claim for 
this culture great advantages over the broadcast system. 
The drill system enables the cultivator to keep his grounds 
clean, and insures an augmentation of product. 

Fig. 39. 




Fig. 38 is a delineation of Bement's, and fig. 39 of 
an ordinary drill barrow. 



CHAPTER XV. 

ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

Alternating crops, is to grow crops of different 
kinds, and, as far as practicable, of different habits, suc- 
cessively in the same field, as grain, roots, and grass. It 
is an essential requisite in good farming, and forms a part 
of it, wherever the soil will admit of it, and wherever 
farming has arrived at any degree of perfection. It is 
this which gave to Flemish husbandry a pre-eminence 
over that of every other country, long before the new 
system had obtained a footing in Great Britain. The 
Flemings insist, that land does not require rest where this 
principle is adhered to ; and we think it is Radclifi^e who 
states, that he saw the operations of harvesting the grain 
crop, ploughing, and sowing turnips, going on in the same 



ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 153 

field simultaneously — the ground being broken up and 
sowed as fast as the corn was cut and removed. In this 
way they often get two crops in a season, and very fre- 
quently three in two years. It is by alternating crops, 
that the county of Norfolk, and other sandy districts in 
England, once poor and unproductive, have been con- 
verted into the most wealthy and populous portions of 
that country. It is this alternating system which has con- 
tributed, in a great measure, to the astonishing recent 
improvements in the .agriculture of Scotland — on many 
farms none of the fields being kept in either meadow or 
pasture more than two years in succession. And it is 
this system which constitutes the pioneer-marks of im- 
proved husbandry in our own land. 

In the preceding essays, we have suggested the impor- 
tance and the modes of making our lands rich and dry, 
and of subjecting them to good tillage. Let us now in- 
quire under what method of management they are likely 
to make us the largest returns, without diminishing their 
intrinsic value. 

It must be palpable to every observing farmer, that the 
old mode of dividing our farms into meadow, plough, and 
pasture lands, and of permanently using each section for 
one purpose only, is a most wretched system of exhaustion, 
both to the land and its occupant. The tillage ground 
deteriorates, with the scanty manuring it gets, till it ceases 
to make a return for the expense of culture, or till it is 
thrown into old fields or commons. The grasses run 
out in the meadow, and mosses and perennial weeds come 
in ; the soil becomes too compact and impervious for the 
ready admission of the great agents of vegetable decom- 
position and nutrition, heat and air, and the free extension 
of the roots of the finer grasses ; — ^and, as all is carried 
off, and little or nothing brought back, the elements of 
fertihty become exhausted, the land annually becomes 
poorer, and the crops grow every year lighter. Nothing 
but a triennial top-dressing of manure or compost will 
keep up the fertility of perennial meadows ; and these 
fertilizing substances can seldom be spared from the ara- 
ble part, to which they may be applied with more certain 



154 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

profit. The pasture is the only portion of such a farm 
that is improving ; and, even in this, bushes, brambles, 
and noxious weeds are too often permitted to intrude, to 
choke and destroy the better herbage. 

It is equally apparent, that we cannot take two or more 
arable crops, of the same kind, from a field, in successive 
seasons, without a manifest falHng off in the product. 
The reason of this may be found in an immutable law of 
Nature, which has provided for each species of plant a 
specific food, suited to its organization and its wants. 
Thus some soils will not grow wheat, although abounding 
in the common elements of fertility, and although they 
will make a profitable return in other farm-crops — in con- 
sequence of such soils being deficient in the specific food 
required for the perfection of the wheat. The same re- 
mark applies to other farm-crops. One family or species 
of plants requires a different food from that which another 
family or species requires ; and it seems to be another 
law of Nature, that what is not essential to one family, or 
species, shall be left in the soil, or returned to it through 
the excretory organs of the growing crop. Of course, 
the specific food for any class, or species, continues to 
accumulate in the soil, the general fertility being kept up, 
till the return again to the field of this particular crop. 
Thus it is supposed to require ten or a dozen years for 
the specific food of flax sufficiently to accumulate for a 
second crop, after one has been taken from a field. Even 
the specific food of clover becomes exhausted by a too 
frequent repetition of it in the same field ; it being found 
necessary, in Norfolk husbandry, to substitute for it, in 
every other four years' course of crops, other grass-seeds, 
so that this may not be repeated oftener than once in 
eight years. In the analysis of plants, wheat is found to 
contain lime, the turnip to contain sulphur, &c., and hence 
we infer that these elementary matters are essential, in 
the soil, to the growth of these crops. 

There are exceptions to the rules of practice which 
these laws inculcate. Some soils seem natural to wheat, 
others to oats, timothy, &c., and successive crops of 
these are taken without apparent diminution of produce. 



ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 155 

Yet it is better to regulate our practice by general laws, 
than by casual exceptions. In the cases noted as excep- 
tions, there is probably so great an accumulation of the 
specific food of the particular crop, that it has not been 
exhausted, though it evidently must have been diminished. 
It is in accordance with the natural laws we have noticed, 
that the grasses in our meadows run out or change ; that 
the timber-trees of the forest alternate — new species 
springing up as the old ones decay, or are cut off; and 
it is in accordance with these laws that the alternation of 
crops has been adopted in all good fai:giing. 

To simplify and render the subject more plain, the 
generahty of tillage crops have been grouped into two 
classes, differing essentially in their character, culture, 
and influence upon the soil. These two classes are de- 
nominated culmiferous crops, and leguminous crops. The 
first is so named from culm, the stock or stem of grains 
or grasses, usually jointed and hollow, and supporting the 
leaves and fructification. Our intention is here not to 
include the grasses. Culmiferous crops are termed rob- 
bers or exhausters of the soil. This class includes 
wheat, barley, oats, rye, Indian corn, tobacco, cotton, 
&c. These are particularly exhausting during the pro- 
cess of maturing their seeds. If cut green, or when in 
blossom, they are far less exhausting. Leguminous crops, 
strictly, are peas, beans, and other pulse ; but here the 
group is intended to embrace, besides, all that are con- 
sidered ameliorating or enriching crops, as potatoes, tur- 
nips, carrots, beets, cabbages, and clover. These last 
are not only less exhausting than the culmiferous class, 
as but few of them mature their seeds, and all, on ac- 
count of their broad system of leaves, draw more nourish- 
ment from the atmosphere than the narrow-leaved plants 
of the other class, but they tend to improve the condition 
of the soil, by dividing and loosening it, with their tap 
and bulbous roots. For these reasons they are called 
ameliorating crops ; and as they generally receive manure, 
and are cultivated with the horse or hand-hoe, they are 
peculiarly adapted to fit the soil for the culmiferous group 
of crops. 



156 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

There is another distinguishing feature between the 
culmiferous and leguminous classes we have named — the 
form of their roots. The first are generally fibrous-rooted, 
are more divided, spread themselves near the surface, 
and draw their nourishment principally from the upper 
stratum of the soil. The leguminous group are generally 
spindle or tap-rooted, with few radicles, and consequently 
draw most of their nourishment from the lower stratum 
of the soil, and through the lower extremities of their 
roots. Plants, says Chaptal, exhaust only that portion 
of the soil which c^mes in contact with their roots ; and 
a spindle root may be able to draw an abundance of nour- 
ishment from land, the surface of which has been exhaust- 
ed by short or creeping roots. The roots of plants of 
the same or analogous species, continues the same writer, 
always take a like direction, if situated in a soil which al- 
lows them a free developeraent ; and thus they pass 
through, and are supported by, the same layers of earth. 
For this reason we seldom find trees prosper that take 
the place of others of the same species, unless a suitable 
period has been allowed for producing the decomposition 
of the roots of the first, and thus supplying the earth with 
fresh manure. 

Good husbandry, therefore, enjoins, that culmiferous 
and leguminous crops should follow each other in suc- 
cession, except where grass is made to intervene ; and it 
matters little what crops are selected from the two classes. 
The good judgement of the farmer may be here exercised 
to determine which are likely to be to him the most ad- 
vantageous. It may be proper to note two exceptions 
to this rule : Indian corn may, under certain contingen- 
cies, be made to follow a small-grain crop to advantage, 
and oats may be sometimes sown, as a fallow crop, upon 
a grass ley ; as a fallow crop to precede wheat or rye, 
and to supersede a naked fallow. Some soils, it is true, 
are better suited to one kind of crop than another ; as, 
for instance, calcareous clays, and strong loams, are better 
adapted to wheat than silicious gravels and sands ; while 
the latter are better fitted to Indian corn, turnips, clover, 
and other tap-rooted plants, than clays. And where In- 



ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 157 

dian corn is to succeed small grains, we venture to recom- 
mend the sowing of clover with the small-grain crop. It 
far more than compensates, to the corn crop, the ex- 
pense of seed and sowing, and gives, withal, much au- 
tumn pasture. In other respects, such as the exhaustion 
of the soil, it is a matter of little interest with the farmer, 
what crops of each class are chosen to alternate with each 
other. 

Farm-stock seems necessarily to be embraced in the 
system of alternate husbandry. Cattle convert the bulky 
products of the farm into meat, butter, cheese, wool, &c. 
These concentrated products are carried to market at com- 
paratively trifling expense. Cattle, which furnish labor, 
and convert into manure the stalks, straw, coarse hay, 
and other ofFal litter of the farm, are necessary to keep up 
its fertihty ; for without manure the soil will grow poor, 
and its products annually diminish. Manures, we repeat, 
are a main source of fertility and of wealth, — they are 
the substantial food of our crops. Lime, and gypsum, 
and other extraneous matters, are good as auxiliaries, 
but none of these can be depended on, as means of fer- 
tility, without the efficient aid of dung. This is the 
bread — the " staff of life," to our farm-crops. Our sup- 
ply of this essential requisite will depend on the amount 
of stock we feed upon the farm ; and the amount of 
stock we can keep profitably, will again depend upon the 
fertility of the soil, and the abundance of its products. 
So that grain, and grass, and root, and cattle husbandry, 
are reciprocally and highly beneficial to each other. It 
is maintained, by practical men, that grounds under good 
tillage will yield as much cattle-food, in roots, straw, &c., 
as the same grounds would yield in grass, thus leaving 
the grain as extra profit. 

The subject of clover, which we have classed with 
ameliorating crops, merits a further and distinct no- 
tice. 

We find that clover was cuhivated at an early period 

by the Flemings, and constituted an important item in 

their excellent system of husbandry. Its introduction 

into British husbandry is of comparatively modern date. 

14 XV. 



158 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

Forty years ago its culture may be said to have com- 
menced in the United States ; but its progress was slow 
till within the last few years ; and even now, the farmers 
of large portions of our country are practically ignorant 
of its improving and enriching qualities. Its benefits have 
been great wherever it has been introduced, accompanied 
with the use of gypsum ; and the two combined have done 
much to improve our husbandry. But their benefits are 
capable of being much more widely extended. 

Clover is less exhausting to the soil than almost any 
other crop. It derives much nourishment from the at- 
mosphere ; and its tap-roots, penetrating the soil to a 
great depth, break and pulverize it, and fit it admirably 
for the reception of tillage crops. We consider the use 
of clover as cattle-food, great as it is, but of secondary 
importance to the farmer — its most profitable uses being 
to feed crops and furnish seed. No green crop is so ser- 
viceable as manure ; and the second crop of the early 
variety may be profitably preserved for seed. We have 

recorded in the Cultivator the practice of Mr. , 

of Tompkins county, who has converted a poor farm 
into one of great productiveness, almost entirely by the 
judicious use of clover. He sows the seed liberally, 
preferring the early or southern variety. This he feeds 
till the 20th of June, or, if it is to be mown, he cuts it 
by the 25th of that month. He then leaves it for a sec- 
ond or seed crop ; and after this is off, he generally turns 
up the ley for a winter or spring crop. Thus the first 
crop serves to feed his cattle ; the second serves the 
double purpose of feeding his cattle and filling his purse, 
for the average product of an acre is four or five bushels 
of seed, worth ordinarily from thirty to fifty dollars, and 
the stems are carefully saved, and serve for cattle -food 
and litter ; while the roots and foliage left upon the field 
go to fertilize it for the next crop. 

We can quote no better authority than Chaptal, a dis- 
tinguished chemist, and a practical farmer upon a broad 
scale, in support of the alternating system. He says, 

" Artificial grass lands (constituting a part of the alter- 
nating system of husbandry, and in contradistinction to 



ALTERNATION OF CROPS, 



159 



natural and permanent grass lands) ought now to be 
considered as forming the basis of agriculture. These 
furnish fodder, the fodder supports cattle, and the cattle 
furnish manure, labor, and all the means necessary to a 
thorough system of cultivation." 

In order to show the contrast which exists in the pro- 
ducts of farms, under the new and old systems of hus- 
bandry, we quote two cases of products under the new 
system. In neither of these cases were the lands of 
great natural fertility. The first farm is situated on a 
sandy pine plain, which until lately was considered of 
little value for husbandry. Forty years ago these lands 
sold for three dollars an acre. They now sell at fifty to 
one hundred dollars an acre. The other farm lies in the 
neighborhood of Poughkeepsie, and, if we are correct 
in our recollections, a part of it was in old field, or com- 
mons, in 1801-2. 

Samuel T. Vary's farm lies on the Kinderhook plains. 
There are 145 acres under cultivation. It was worked 
in 1835 by Mr. Vary and his sons. His total expendi- 
ture, that is, money laid out for his family and farm, 
amounted to ^385 75. After speaking of the depreda- 
tions of the wire -worm, early and late frosts, and other 
drawbacks with which farmers are ever afflicted, Mr. 
Vary proceeds to give the following statement of the 



Products and Sales of the Farm in 1835. 


12 calves, .... 


#37 89 


196 lbs. butter, at 20 cents, . 


39 20 


1542 " cheese, at 8 cents, 


123 36 


30 lambs, at 155. 


. 56 25 


850 bushels oats, at 52 cents, 


442 00 


375 do. potatoes, at 25 cents 


3, . 93 75 


20 tons hay, at $15 per ton, 


300 00 


72 bushels onions, at 50 cents, 


. 36 00 


500 do. corn, at 84 cents, 


420 00 


220 do. wheat, at $1 50, 


. 330 00 


4 cows, beef. 


69 00 


2 oxen and 2 steers, do. 


. 130 00 


7 shoats. 


17 00 



160 ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 

1440 lbs. pork, at 7 cents, . . . $100 80 

22 wethers, at $4 each, . . . 88 00 

Total value, $2,283 25 

Deduct money paid out, . . . 385 75 

Leaving a balance of . . $1,897 50 

See Cultivator, vol. ii. p. 181. 

The other case is that of Mr. David Harris, the de- 
tails of which are also given in the Cultivator, vol. iii. 
p. 30. Mr. Harris cultivated 143 acres. He gives the 
following as the proceeds of his farm in 1835. 

190 bushels of wheat, at $1 25, . $237 50 

165 " of rye, at 94 cents, . 155 10 

325 " of corn, at 75 cents, . 243 75 

900 " of oats, at 50 cents, . 450 00 

27 '' of buckwheat, at 50 cents, 13 50 

7 live shoats, .... 40 00 

1200 lbs. pork, at 7 cents, . . . 84 00 

3 calves, 9 50 

90 tons of hay, at $22, . . 1,980 00 

Advance on 26 sheep, . . . 65 00 

60 bushels potatoes, at 25 cents, . . 15 00 





$3,293 35 


The amount of sales from the above. 


100 bushels of wheat, at $1 25, 


. $125 00 


165 " of rye, at 94 cents. 


155 10 


209 "■ of corn, at 78 cents. 


163 02 


700 '' of oats, at 50 cents, 


350 00 


7 live hogs, .... 


40 00 


3 calves, ..... 


9 50 


75 tons of hay, 


. 1,762 50 


Advance on 26 sheep, . . . 


65 00 


Received for pasture and feed, exclusive 


of my own stock. 


. 60 00 




$2,730 12 


Expenses for labor, &c. on the farm. 


275 00 



Nett profit, .... $2,455 12 



ALTERNATION OF CROPS. 161 

Thus Mr. Vary's farm afforded him a nett annual profit 
of about $13 08 per acre, over and above the amount 
paid out for his family, and for farm-labor, &c., and Mr. 
Harris's gave him a nett profit of about $17 16 per acre, 
over and above his farm-expenses. 

A strong argument in favor of alternating crops may be 
drawn from the alternations which are naturally going on 
in forests, and in permanent meadows, and from the hab- 
its of many plants, in sending abroad roots and stollens, 
to estabhsh a progeny in fresh, unexhausted soil. Thus, in 
forest lands, the new growth seldom resembles altogether 
that which has been felled. Hard wood frequently suc- 
ceeds the pine and hemlock, while the pine and cedar, in 
innumerable instances, succeed the primitive growth of 
hard wood. The raspberry and the strawberry soon ex- 
haust the soil of specific food, and Nature has endowed 
these plants with the power of virtually changing their 
location, by means of roots and stollens, and of annually 
renewing their vigor from the resources of, to them, a 
virgin soil. And even the delicate stoloniferous rose is 
constantly changing its location in this way, and droops 
and declines, in three or four years, if confined to a sin- 
gle spot. With herbaceous plants which die and decay 
where they grow, this disposition to change does not ex- 
ist in so great a degree — because they annually return 
again to the soil, and furnish the specific food for a new 
generation of their species. So general is this law of 
alternation, that it has become a well-settled opinion among 
British farmers, that even our common biennial clover 
should not be sown oftener than at intervals of six or eight 
years upon the same field, its tendency, in common with 
other plants, being to exhaust a specific property of the soil. 

We will close this essay with quoting, from Chaptal, 
the principles which he lays down in regard to the alter- 
nating system of husbandry, and the conclusion he draws 
from them. His principles are — 

"1. All plants exhaust the soil. 

" 2. All plants do not exhaust the soil equally. 

*' 3. Plants of different kinds do not exhaust the soil 
in the same manner. 
14* 



162 ALTERNATION OF CROPS, 



ii 



4. All plants do not restore to the soil either the 
same quantity or quality of manure. 

'' 5. All plants do not feed the soil equally." 

And from these principles he deduces the following 
conclusions : — 

" 1. That, however well prepared a soil may be, it 
cannot nourish a long succession of crops without being 
exhausted. 

"2. Each harvest empoverishes the soil to a certain 
extent, depending upon the degree of nourishment which 
it restores to the earth. 

" 3. The cultivation of spindle roots ought to succeed 
that of running and superficial roots. 

"4. It is necessary to avoid returning too soon to the 
cultivation of the same, or to analogous kinds of vegeta- 
bles, in the same soil. 

"5. It is very unwise to allow two kinds of plants, 
which admit of the ready growth of weeds among them, 
to be raised in succession. 

"6. Those plants that derive their principal support 
from the soil, should not be sown, except when the soil 
is sufficiently provided with manure. 

"7. When the soil exhibits symptoms of exhaustion, 
from successive harvests, the cultivation of those plants 
that restore most to the soil must be resorted to. 

" These principles are confirmed by experience ; they 
form the basis of a system of agriculture, rich in its pro- 
ducts, but more rich in its economy, by the diminution 
of the usual quantity of labor and manure. All cultiva- 
tors ought to be governed by them ; but their apphcation 
must be modified by the nature of soils and climates, and 
the particular wants of each locality." — Chemistry applied 
to Agriculture. 



ROOT CULTURE. 163 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ROOT CULTURE. 

The advantages of root culture to the soil, in the al- 
ternating system, have already been briefly alluded to ; but 
this culture possesses higher claims to our notice than the 
bare influence it has in ameliorating the soil : it consti- 
tutes, otherwise, by far the best means of economically 
feeding and fattening farm-stock, and adds greatly to the 
means of fertilizing the soil. It trebles the amount of 
cattle-food, and doubles the quantity of manure. It more- 
over may be made to supply a large portion of human 
food. Potatoes constitute a great portion of the bread 
and meat of the Irish peasantry — and there are no people 
more hale and robust than the Irish — feed their cows, fat- 
ten their pigs and poultry, and form an article of foreign 
commerce. The turnip has long been an important crop 
in Germany. The beet culture in France now furnishes 
annually a hundred millions of pounds of sugar, for human 
consumption ; while the refuse of the crop enables the 
French to enjoy the luxury of good beef and good mut- 
ton, which were scarce commodities with them before the 
beet culture was introduced. The field culture of the 
carrot has long been profitably adopted in Flanders. In 
the culinary, or kitchen department, the liberal use of 
roots has in a measure become indispensable to whole- 
some diet ; and while they are grateful to the palate, and 
promotive of health, they greatly economize the expense 
of bread and meat. In British husbandry, the introduc- 
tion of root culture has been considered as important in 
increasing the products of the soil, as the application of 
steam has been to the improvement of the manufacturing 
arts. We will quote here a passage from the New Edin- 
burgh Encyclopedia in confirmation of this fact. 

" The introduction of turnips into the husbandry of 
Britain," says this respectable work, " occasioned one of 



164 ROOT CULTURE. 

those revolutions in rural art which are constantly occur- 
ring among husbandmen, and, though the revolution came 
on with slow and gradual steps, yet it may now be viewed 
as completely and thoroughly established. Before the 
introduction of this root, it was impossible to cultivate 
light soils successfully, or to derive suitable rotations for 
cropping them with advantage. It was also a difficult 
task to support live stock through the winter and spring 
months ; and as for feeding and fatting cattle and sheep 
for market, during these inclement seasons, the practice 
was hardly thought of, and still more rarely attempted, 
unless when a full stock of hay was provided, which only 
happened in a very few instances. The benefits derived 
from the turnip husbandry are, therefore, of great magni- 
tude : light soils are now cultivated with profit and facil- 
ity ; abundance of food is provided for man and beast ; 
the earth is turned to the uses for which it is physically 
calculated ; and, by being suitably cleaned with this pre- 
paratory crop, a bed is provided for grass-seeds, wherein 
they flourish and prosper with greater vigor than after any 
other preparation." 

Few of our farmers are probably apprized of the fact, 
that English beef and mutton, so highly extolled, and of 
which John Bull so vauntingly boasts — and perhaps no 
people have better — is mostly winter-fattened, without 
the addition of any sort of grain, upon roots and straw. 

All of the field-cultivated roots are found well adapted 
to our soil and climate ; and where their culture has been 
undertaken with spirit, and managed with judgement, it 
has been fully demonstrated, that labor and capital cannot 
be more profitably apphed in any other department of 
husbandry, than it can be in this. It gives the most cat- 
tle-food and most manure, important items in the econo- 
my of the farm, and leaves the soil in excellent order for 
grain and grass-seeds. The great obstacle to root cul- 
ture, other than the potato crop, has been, the labor which 
is required to secure the roots from the frosts of winter ; 
and yet the labor and expense required for this purpose, 
are perhaps no greater than we expend in securing our 
grain and forage, if they are so great. Where cellars are 



ROOT CULTURE. 165 

not adequate — and they may be constructed under barns 
with advantage — these roots may all be securely preserved 
in pits, in dry situations, due precaution being had to cov- 
ering and ventilation. We do save potatoes, and we can 
save other roots in the same way. It is the novelty of 
the labor, rather than the amount of it, and a want of 
practical knowledge in their culture and preservation, 
which intimidate and deter very many. It has been 
demonstrated, in repeated experiments made in our coun- 
try, that labor is more profitably bestowed upon root 
crops, if judiciously applied, and the profits of the land are 
greater, than in most of the other crops that we cultivate. 
Assuming the average product of hay at a ton and a half 
to two tons per acre, and of beets and ruta baga at 600 
bushels — and allowing a bushel and a half of the latter 
(90 lbs.) to be equivalent, for farm-stock, to 20 lbs. of 
hay, an acre of the roots will go as far in the economy of 
feeding, as nearly three acres of meadow, to say nothing 
of the tops, which are excellent food, and which will, at 
least in a great part, compensate for the extra expense of 
culture. These roots, besides, may be used as a substi- 
tute for grain, to working horses and oxen, and for pigs. 
The three acres of grass are found to give less than 9,000 
lbs. to the dung-yard, while the one acre of ruta baga, or 
beets, gives 36,000 lbs., or four times as much as the 
three acres of grass land. 

Five things are essential in the culture of root crops : 
first, a dry soil ; second, a rich soil ; third, a deep soil ; 
fourth, a well-pulverized soil ; and, fifth, good after-culture. 
The crop will be abundant in proportion as these several 
requisites are regarded, and deficient in proportion as they 
are neglected. 

By a dry soil, we mean a soil that is not wet. Moisture 
is beneficial to all crops, and is indeed indispensable to 
their growth ; but water is detrimental to all root crops, 
though it repose upon the subsoil, or appear but occa- 
sionally upon the surface. Hence, when roots are 
to be grown upon soils that are tenacious or flat, or 
upon those which repose upon an impervious subsoil, the 
land should either be previously under-drained, or should 



166 



ROOT CULTURE. 



be thrown into ridges, and the furrows kept open for the 
free passage of the water in heavy rains. 

A rich soil is as essential to good crops, and particu- 
larly to root crops, as nourishing and abundant food is to 
the fattening of farm-stock. We all know that lean pas- 
ture and coarse forage, although they may keep^ will not 
fatten cattle. It is equally true, that although farm-crops 
will live and grow upon a poor soil, the product and profit 
will be great only on a rich one. The advantage to the 
crop, as well as to the animal, will be in proportion to the 
quantity of organic matter which is converted into living 
organic matter — into vegetables and into meat. Mere 
earthy matters enter but minutely, or adventitiously, into 
the structure of either. Hence the maxim, verified by 
long experience, that it is better to cultivate one acre of 
rich land than three acres of poor land. The expense 
of cultivating the latter is threefold that of the former, 
while the product of the one rich acre, is often equal to 
the product of the three poor acres. Ordinarily speaking, 
a good dressing of manure will double the products of a 
root crop. To illustrate this fact more fully, we quote 
the following tabular statement from Arthur Young's 
experiments with potatoes. It is unnecessary to add, 
that Mr. Young was one of the most intelligent and care- 
ful agriculturists of the last generation. The prepara- 
tion and culture were alike in all the cases noted below, 
except that in those marked with an asterisk (*) the crop 
was manured, and in the others the crop was not ma- 
nured. 



6 


Preceding 


Expense. 


Product 


J 


Profit. 


Loss. 


2 


crops. 


£. s. d. 


bushels 




£. s. d. 


s. d. 


1 


Fallow, . 


3 19 1 


104 at Is. 


6d. 


2 18 5 





2 


Barley, . 


4 5 9 


128 2 





3 11 10 





3 


Wheat, . 


6 13 6 


46 


20 








4# 


Do. . . 


7 16 10 


101 


20 


2 5 6 





5 


Do. . . 


6 2 6 


39 


20 


7 6 





6 


Do. . . 


7 19 4 


63 


20 


16 11 





7* 


Do. . . 


4 14 5 


170 


20 


9 2 





8 


Do. . . 


8 9 3 


30 


20 





15 6 


9* 


Do. . . 


4 12 1 


201 


20 


11 2 9 






ROOT CULTURE. 167 

The three manured crops, it will be seen, gave an 
aggregate product of 472 bushels, and an aggregate nett 
profit of £22 105. 3c?., ($99 90, say $100 ;) the three 
adjoining plats, treated like the others in all respects but 
manuring, gave an aggregate nett product of 132 bushels, 
and an aggregate nett profit of but 85. lie/., ($1 96, say 
$2 ;) thus showing that the manure, in these cases, pro- 
duced an absolute gain of $98, and that where it was 
not used, there was a mere nominal profit of two dollars. 
These facts will serve to show the reader, firsts the great 
value of manure in farming operations, and to stimulate 
him to save and economize it ; and, secondly^ to show 
him the propriety of always manuring his potato and 
other root crops, which are equally benefited by the ap- 
plication, except a heavy dressing has been given to the 
preceding crop, for which, it is now generally admitted, 
the unfermented dung of the stables and cattle-yards is 
best fitted. 

A deep-worked soil is necessary, for all but the potato 
crop, and even to this it is highly beneficial, — that the 
tap-roots of the beet, carrot, and turnip may not only 
penetrate freely, and increase their length and their vol- 
ume, but that their radicles — their mouths — which are 
principally upon their lower extremities, may there find 
food for the parent plant. Even the turnip and the pota- 
to, in a deep tilth, send down their roots to a great depth, 
for food and moisture. This may be seen upon the bor- 
ders of a field where the soil has been superficially 
ploughed, and where the product is always inferior, and 
most liable to suffer from drought. 

The pulverization of the soil is essential to the ger- 
mination of the seed, to the ready extension of the roots, 
to the free circulation in it of air and moisture, and the 
admission of solar heat, all contributing to prepare and 
transmit the food to the growing plants. If the soil is 
lumpy, or coarse, and does not come in close contact 
with the seed, to keep it moist, the seed cannot germi- 
nate ; the roots cannot freely extend in search of food ; 
nor can this food be properly prepared, and transmitted 
to the plant, unless the soil be so pulverized as to permit 



168 ROOT CULTURE. 

the free circulation of air and moisture through all its in- 
terstices, and through its mass. The air and dews, we 
repeat, are charged with the elements of fertility, and the 
more freely they are permitted to penetrate the soil, the 
more benefit will they impart to the crop. 

Good after-culture implies, the keeping of the ground 
free from weeds, which rob the crop of its food, thinning 
the plants to a proper distance, and keeping the surface 
mellow, or open to atmospheric influence. If the soil is 
dry, and rich, and deep, and well pulverized, the labors 
of the husbandman will yet not avail much, in root crops, 
if he neglects either to destroy weeds, to thin, when ne- 
cessary, his plants, or to keep the surface loose and 
open. But these latter requisites to success may easily 
be got along with, if they are attended to in time, and with 
proper implements. The potato ground should be well 
harrowed, to destroy all the young weeds, and to pulver- 
ize the surface, before the shoots have all broke ground. 
It may afterwards be almost wholly managed with the 
plough and cultivator. The beet, carrot, and ruta baga, 
if sown, as they should be, in rows, should be cleaned in 
like manner, and for like purpose, with the cultivator, as 
soon as the rows of the young plants can be readily dis- 
tinguished. One hour's labor, in this way, will destroy 
more small weeds, and correspondingly benefit the crop, 
than three hours' labor will effect upon large weeds. It 
is easier to destroy the acorn, than it is to eradicate the 
oak. To crowd plants, is like overstocking a pasture, 
or endeavoring to make fat animals from half rations of 
food. It is dividing among many that food which is re- 
quired to perfect one. It moreover tends to exclude 
light, heat, and a free circulation of air, essential to the 
developement of vegetables, and the perfection of their 
growth. Hence a moderate number of plants will give a 
better product than a great many, upon the same ground, 
in a crowded situation. This is a hard lesson to teach 
to some farmers, in regard to root crops. 



FALLOW CROPS AND NAKED FALLOWS. 169 

CHAPTER XVII. 

ON SUBSTITUTING FALLOW CROPS FOR NAKED FALLOWS. 

The practice, under the old system of husbandry, has 
been, to plough up grass grounds in June, July, and Au- 
gust, for winter grain ; to cross-plough and harrow suc- 
cessively, and to sow upon them in September and 
October. In England the ground was ploughed the 
preceding autumn, and the ploughings and harro wings 
repeated during the succeeding summer till seed-time. 
The effect of this system was, the loss of the ground for 
a season, an unnecessary outlay of labor, and the wasting 
of a great portion of the fertilizing matters of the sward, 
by turning it repeatedly up to the surface. These labors 
and losses are in a measure superseded, by substituting 
fallow crops, that is, by taking a crop after one ploughing, 
upon the inverted sward. While this is growing, the sod 
is decomposing, the repeated ploughings are saved, the 
field is turned to profit, the tilth is in fine condition the 
next fall or spring, for small grains, and the soil receives 
all the benefit of the fertilizing properties of the sod. 
Old swards, especially if the soil is stiff, are ploughed deep 
late in autumn, and receive a ^superficial furrow, or a 
thorough harrowing, in the spring, to fit them for the 
fallow crop. Clover leys may be ploughed just before 
the seed is to be deposited, and the preparation finished 
by the harrow or roller. 

There is no agricultural writer of note, and very few 
good farmers, who now advocate summer fallows, except 
on stiff clays, or wet grounds, which cannot be readily 
worked in spring or fall, and this principally for the pur- 
pose of cleaning them from perennial weeds. We sub- 
join some quotations, from high authorities, in corrobora- 
tion of this fact. 

'* Fallowing was necessary," says Chaptal, " as long as 
grains only, all of which exhaust the lands, were cultiva- 
15 XV. 



170 FALLOW CROPS AND 

ted ; during the intervals of tilling the fields, a variety of 
herbs grew on them, which offered food for animals, and 
the roots of which, buried in the soil by the plough, fur- 
nished a great part of the necessary manure. But at this 
day, when we have succeeded in establishing the cultiva- 
tion of a great variety of roots and artificial grasses, the 
system of fallowing can be no longer supported by the 
shadow of a good reason. The ease with which fodder 
may be cultivated, furnishes the means of supporting an 
increased number of animals ; these in their turn supply 
manure and labor ; and the farmer is no longer under the 
necessity of allowing his lands to be fallow. The sup- 
pression of the practice of fallowing is then equally ser- 
viceable to the cultivator, who increases his productions 
without proportionally increasing his expenses, and to 
society, which derives from the same extent of soil a 
much greater quantity of food, and additional resources 
for supplying the workshops of the manufacturer," — 
Chemistry applied to Agriculture. 

" It is already acknowledged, that it is only upon wet 
soils, or, in other words, upon lands unfit for the turnip 
husbandry, that a plain summer fallow is necessary." — 
J^ew Edinburgh Encyclopedia. 

" As there is only one good reason for fallowing," 
says Cooper, in the Domestic Encyclopedia, " namely, 
to destroy weeds, — and as this can be done full as well by 
fallow crops, that is, by crops that require frequent clean- 
ing during their growth, no fallows ought to be permitted 
in a good system of husbandry." 

Before root culture, or the alternation of crops, had 
obtained any thing like a footing among us. Chancellor 
Livingston — and we can ask no better authority — satisfied 
of the great loss of labor and farm-profits by the old sys- 
tem of farming, drew the following comparison between 
the advantages of summer fallows and fallow crops, pre- 
dicated, we believe, principally upon his own practice. 

" I will endeavor," says Chancellor Livingston, " to 
state the profits and loss of two farmers, each cultivating, 
besides his meadows, one hundred acres of arable land, 
one in the usual [old] mode of this country, and the other 
by the intervention of vetches and clover. 



NAKED FALLOWS. 171 

" Common Agriculture, 100 Acres. 

20 acres In corn, 35 bushels, 50 cts. £7 

20 " oats on corn ground of the pre- 
ceding year, 20 bushels, at 2s. . .200 
20 acres summer fallow, . . . 
20 " wheat, 10 bushels, at 8s. . .4 00 
20 " wheat stubble in pasture, . 2 



14 






1 10 






1 00 






, 1 00 








£1 


4 



100 acres. Five years' yield, per acre, £13 2 
" Expense per acre for jive years. 
Indian corn, ploughing, &c. £2 00 
Oats, twice ploughed, . . 1 00 

Harrowing, seed-sowing, and 

harvesting. 
Summer fallow, 
Wheat, seed and harvesting. 
Rent on 5 acres, at 50 cts. a year, 

Balance of profit on 1 acre in 5 years, or 

5 acres in 1 year, . . . £5 18 

*' Profit on Fallow Crops on Intervention of Fallow Crops 
instead of Fallowing. 

20 acres in Indian corn, . . .£700 

20 acres in vetches, 25 cwt. at 2s. 6d. 3 2 6 

20 " in wheat, 12 bushels, . . 4 16 
20 *^ in clover, 25 cwt., 31 cents, 3 2 6 

20 " the same, . . . .326 

Five years' produce of one acre, . £21 3 6 

" Expenses. 

Indian com, . . . £2 

Ploughing corn ground for vetch- 
es, . . . . . 10 

Seed, 3 bushels, sowing, &c. 12 

Cutting and making hay, . 8 

Vetch stubble ploughed once 

for wheat, seed and harvesting, 1 10 

12 lbs. clover-seed and sowing, 15 



172 FALLOW CROPS AND 

Mowing clover, paid by the sec- 
ond crop, . . . 
Rent, $4 50, or 50 cents a year, 10 



£6 15 



To balance of profit, per acre, in 5 years, 

or on 5 acres in 1 year, . . £14 8 6 

" Thus while one farmer makes £1 3s. bd. a year per 
acre, upon his hundred acres, clear of expense, the other 
makes £2 I7s. 6d. ; the one gets little better than one 
hundred, the other gets three hundred a year. In the 
above statement I have given one farmer credit for two 
bushels of wheat more than the other, since I am per- 
suaded the vetch crop will improve the ground more than 
the difterence, as the dung given to the corn will not be 
exhausted by this so much as by the oat crop, before the 
wheat is sown. To this profit should also be added the 
continued improvement of the crop by the one mode of 
husbandry, and the continued decrease by the exhausting 
the land in the other. 

" The fallow farmer has no fodder which the rotative 
farmer does not possess, except the straw of his oats, 
which we will value at half a ton of hay per acre. He 
then has from his oats, on 20 acres, ten tons. 

The fallow farmer has, from 20 acres vetches, 25 tons. 
From 40 acres of clover, . . . 50 " 

75 

Deduct the oat straw, ... 25 

Superiority of fallow-crop farmer, . 50 tons. 

" He can thus winter, at one ton a head, 65 head of 
cattle more than the fallowing farmer ; and as each of 
these will afford at least six loads of dung, he will be 
able to carry out 390 loads of dung more than the fallow- 
ing farmer, besides that he has one exhausting crop less. 
It will be easy to see what difference this must make in 
a few years in the produce of a farm, and how much more 
it would be than I have rated it at. We often ask with 
astonishment, how the British farmer can afford to pay a 



NAKED FALLOWS. 173 

guinea an acre rent, [a tenth of his produce in tithes, a 
heavy poor-rate, and an enormous tax.] The difficulty is 
solved if we examine the above statement, since the dif- 
ference between fallowing and establishing a rotation of 
crops amounts to more than the difference of our rents and 
theirs. I know there are some stiff soils on which it 
would be difficult to establish the rotation I mention, but 
this should be no argument against it where the soil will 
admit of it, particularly as clover and vetches may be in- 
troduced with a certainty of success, even if the ground 
should be naturally poor, by the addition only of gypsum, 
which will indeed add a few cents a year to the acreable 
expense, but it will, in all probability, at the same time 
add nearly a ton to the produce. 

" I would not be considered as confining my observa- 
tion to vetches, which have not yet been sufficiently tried 
in this country ; potatoes or carrots, or peas sown thin, 
and cut green for provender, may all answer the purpose, 
but, above all, clover. If this last is the only crop to be 
brought into the rotation, the system must be changed to 
the following course : 1st, corn ; 2d, barley and clover ; 
3d and 4th, clover ; 5th, wheat and one ploughing. By 
this means a crop of clover will be substituted for a 
fallow." 

Thus far Chancellor Livingston. We would add this 
suggestion, that as the culture of turnips and beets is now 
successfully progressing among us, and as the winter- 
wheat crop is becoming so precarious as to render a re- 
sort to the spring varieties of that grain probable, the 
following course would be better adapted to our husband- 
ry than the one recommended above : first year, corn or 
potatoes, upon a clover ley, with long or unfermented 
manure ; second year, spring wheat with clover-seeds ; 
third year, clover cut in June, and fallowed with turnips ; 
fourth year, barley or oats with grass-seeds ; fifth year, 
meadow ; sixth year, pasture. In this way seven crops 
would be obtained in six years ; three of them would be 
decidedly ameliorating, and but two particularly exhaust- 
ing ; and in five of the seven years the field would afford 
pasture in autumn. This course is particularly recom- 
15* 



174 FALLOW CROPS AND 

mended where manure is scarce ; as it is believed that ma- 
nuring the first crop of the course well would keep up the 
fertility upon lands not very light and sandy, as it would 
embrace two grass leys. Where beets or carrots are to be 
cultivated, they may be made to follow the dunged crop of 
corn or potatoes, and be followed in their turn by barley, 
or oats, or wheat, and grass-seeds, thus giving a five-years' 
course, in which the field would give two grass, two ex- 
hausting, and one root crop. Two objections may be 
started to the first course ; first, that the clover cannot be 
cut in time to get in the turnip crop ; and second, that sow- 
ing grass-seeds twice in the course will be too expensive. 
To the first objection we offer our common practice, 
which is, to sow our ruta baga upon a clover ley — the 
southern or small clover — after the grass has been cut for 
hay, in June, so that the ruta baga may be sown before the 
first of July. The common turnip may be put in a 
month later. To the second objection we answer, that 
the value of the clover ley to the soil, to say nothing 
of the feed which it will afford to cattle, will twice 
l-epay the cost of the seed. We are satisfied, from ex- 
perience, that it is profitable to sow clover with every 
crop of small grain, on soils adapted to its growth, 
merely for the purpose of enriching the land. 

Before we close this subject, we will quote, from 
' British Husbandry,' two highly-successful experiments, 
made upon clay farms, in substituting fallow crops for 
naked fallows. Although our crops differ somewhat from 
those cultivated in England, yet the hints and demonstra- 
tions which these examples afford, will not be lost on 
the American farmer. The two following are the cases 
alluded to, which we give in the words of the British 
editor. 

'' greg's system. 

** The farm of Coles, near Buntingford, in Hertford- 
shire, consists of 240 acres of arable land, which is de- 
scribed as ' a very tenacious clay, in some places mixed 
up with calcareous earth, which causes it to bind at top 
after heavy rains ;' and w'as formerly worked nearly un- 



NAKED FALLOWS. 175 

der a three-course system of summer fallow, white corn, 
and pulse, or clover. Turnips were seldom sown, as the 
difficulty of feeding or carting them off was found to be 
injurious to the succeeding crop ; and, consequently, 
only a small flock of 80 ewes or 140 wethers was kept, 
which was constantly folded during the summer. Upon 
this, and the observations regarding the disadvantages 
attending the similar plans of his neighbors, it is unneces- 
sary that we should here offer any remark, for we know 
that they have been, in many instances, improved, and 
our more immediate object is to state the system after- 
wards adopted by Mr. Greg^ and since followed by his 
nephew, during upwards of twenty years. 

'•' Having, as he tfells us, ' established in his mind, as a 
general principle, that fertility was to be derived from 
pulverizing the soil, clearing it from water, and keeping 
it clean, he proceeded to inquire how those objects were 
to be obtained at the least expense ; and he found that the 
best method to promote them was to reverse the whole 
system of the former cultivation.' Accordingly, instead 
of ploughing four or five times only, in summer and 
spring, and fallowing every third year, he formed the de- 
termination ' to plough only once for a crop ; to plough 
only in winter ; never to fallow the land in summer ; to 
practise the row-culture, and to use the horse-hoe.' The 
mode in which he carried his plan into execution was as 
follows. 

*'He divided the farm as nearly as possible into six 
equal parts, which are cultivated in a six-course shift, 
consisting of turnips ; barley or oats, clover, standing 
two years ; peas or beans, upon the ley ; and lastly, 
wheat. The ground is marked out by a drill into ridges 
of five and a half feet in width, intersected by furrows of 
ten inches wide ; thus leaving only fifty-six inches for 
each land, which is worked by a Suffolk swing plough, 
formed upon a construction to cut a perfect trench of 
seven inches deep, and requiring four bouts to complete 
the ridge, which is made sufficiently convex to describe 
an inclined plane of three inches from the crown to each 
furrow. Thus water is prevented from remaining upon 



176 FALLOW CROPS AND 

the land intended to be cropped, by being drawn into the 
ten-inch furrow, which is carried two inches deeper ; the 
horses never tread but in a furrow ; and by the soundness 
of this ploughing Mr. Greg states, that ' when effected 
in the autumn or before Christmas, a perfect friabihty is 
obtained in the tilth by the influence of the frost during 
the winter, and the surface-water may be as effectually 
got rid of as by under-draining.' 

" As soon as the harvest is completed, the wheat-stub- 
bles are haulmed, and the lands are marked out and 
ploughed one bout : dung is then ploughed in to the 
amount of ten loads per acre, and three bushels of winter 
tares with a bushel and a half of winter barley are sown, 
to precede turnips, to the extent of about half the ground 
intended for that crop, which, in common seasons, it does 
not impede, as the tares are cut upon a moist furrow for 
the turnip-sowing. 

" The tare-sowing being finished, the bean and pea- 
stubbles are prepared for wheat ; which is a difficult op- 
eration on heavy land, when the object is to get the seed 
early into the ground. The labor which they require 
from the plough, roll, and harrow, was so great as to inr 
duce Mr. Greg to use a powerful grubber, or scarifier, 
of a form which covers an entire land ; and it performed 
so well that he has since continued to use it instead of 
the plough, as he found that he could thus sow forty 
acres of wheat in a very few days, regardless of weather, 
and at a sixth part of the expense. 

" Having sown the wheat, the remainder of the land 
intended for turnips is ploughed and dunged. The 
ploughing is also performed for peas and beans ; and it is 
desirable that these operations should be completed be- 
fore Christmas. As soon as the season turns, the land 
which was ley, and intended for beans and peas, is scari- 
fied ; and when the growing weather commences, the 
beans are drilled at fifteen inches, for the convenience of 
horse-hoeing. The peas are next drilled ; but as these, by 
falling over, preclude the possibility of hoeing them more 
than twice, they are sown at intervals of twelve inches. 

" As the ground is cleared of turnips, it is ploughed 



NAKED FALLOWS. 177 

into lands. In the spring, the barley is drilled in rows of 
eight inches — not leaving any space for furrow — and the 
clover and rye-grass is sown up, and then across the lands. 
"As soon in May as the weather permits, and the sun 
is sufficiently powerful to kill weeds, the scarifier is set 
to work, succeeded by a strong harrow ; and having by 
these operations obtained cleanliness, the first favorable 
weather is made use of to sow Swedish turnips ; or, 
should they fail, they are succeeded by white turnips, and 
in the event of a further miscarriage, coleseed is sown. 
With these, and the assistance of about ten loads of clo- 
ver, and ten weeks' run on pasture in bad weather, 500 
sheep are now kept on the farm, but lie enclosed at night 
in a spacious and well-littered yard. The fodder pro- 
duced by straw and clover-hay supports from forty to fifty 
head of cattle, and nine working horses are kept, which 
are soiled during the entire summer : thus so large a 
quantity of dung is made that no manure is purchased. 

" In this manner 200 acres are ploughed between har- 
vest and Christmas, besides the cartage of dung and other 
odd jobs on the farm ; but this is easily performed with 
the aid of the grubber, and the land being entirely 
ploughed in the winter, there is only the sowing of Lent 
corn to execute in the spring : the horses are therefore 
put upon green food, by which a considerable saving is 
made in the consumption of com. Many other details 
of management are given in Mr. Greg's pamphlet, which 
is brief and well worthy of attention, but which we refrain 
from enumerating, as we only meant to call attention to the 
extraordinary statement which it contains, of such a system 
of culture having been so successfully pursued upon land 
of that nature, as to yield an average, during six years, 
of the following crops, namely ; 

Per acre. 

Wheat, 25 bushels. 

Barley, 40 " 

Beans, 35 " 

Peas, 30 " 

Clover, twice cut, ... 2 tons. 

Thus, after the deduction of rent and the interest of 



178 FALLOW CROPS AND 

£2,500 capital, presenting, upon an average of six years, 
a profit of £671 35., or £2 1 5s. lid. per acre, and a 
result in favor of his mode of cultivation of no less than 
an annual difference amounting to £638 135. 

" Of the accuracy of the minute account thus furnished 
by Mr. Greg, we have no reason to doubt, though we 
confess ourselves somewhat skeptical regarding the jus- 
tice of the conclusions which he has drawn respecting 
the superiority of his own plans over those of his neigh- 
bors ; for every man, however high his honor and impar- 
tiality, is yet unconsciously biased in favor of any pur- 
suit of his own, and no farmer could Hve upon the profit 
which he has assumed as that of cultivation under the old 
plan. On a subject of such vital importance to agricul- 
ture as that of the fallow system, we indeed deemed it 
prudent to apply to the present Mr. Greg for further in- 
formation, which he readily afforded ; and. from recent 
personal communication and correspondence, we are as- 
sured by him, ' that his uncle's system is still pursued 
upon his farm with the best effect ; as is evinced by the 
clean condition of the land, the heavy crops produced, 
and the quantities of stock maintained. The only altera- 
tion of importance made in his mode of cultivation sub- 
sequent to the publication of his pamphlet, was the sub- 
stitution of a seven-years' course, in place of that of six 
years, by which he obtained two crops of wheat — one on 
the clover ley, and another after the beans and peas. 
The annual course of cropping in the several years now, 
therefore, stands thus ; — 

1. Turnips. 5. Wheat. 

2. Barley. 6. Beans and Peas. 

3. and 4. Clover. 7. Wheat. 

'* ' No material alteration has been made in the imple- 
ments ; nor was any fallow permitted so long as the 
late Mr. Greg's health allowed his superintendence of the 
farm ; but the bailifi' now occasionally fallows afield of 
the heaviest land : this, however, is only resorted to 
when the land sown with turnips has not been prepared 
in time for the barley crop, and only averages about 16 
acres a year out of 250.' " 



a 



NAKED FALLOWS. 179 



beatson's system. 



" Knowle Farm, in the neighborhood of Tunbridge 
Wells, which was a few years ago in the occupation of 
the late General Beatson, contains about 300 acres of 
land, of which 112 are arable, and is described as abound- 
ing with clay, and retentive of surface moisture, but 
when dried by the summer heat, it becomes as hard as a 
brick, and impervious to the plough, unless with a great 
power of animal exertion, particularly as the general 
mode is to plough deep. The established rotation in that 
part of Kent and the neighboring portion of Sussex, 
is fallow, wheat, and oats, with occasionally clover 
and rye-grass ; and the husbandry appears to have re- 
mained unaltered for many ages, with the single exception 
of substituting lime for manure instead of marl. Upon 
this system the farm was managed during the General's 
absence, while Governor of the Island of St. Helena ; 
and finding on his return, in the year 1813, ' that he had 
no cause to boast of its profit, he resolved to trace the 
whole progress of the operations, from the commence- 
ment of the fallow to the close of the rotation ;' the re- 
sult of which was, that, ' having made a series of experi- 
ments, to which he devoted his attention during five years, 
he determined upon the total abolition of fallows. 



5* 



* His experiments were extended to various objects besides the 
working of the land ; particularly to the combinations of different kinds 
of manure, and the burning of clay, (for which, see our vol. i. chap- 
ters 16 and 17 ;) but our present extracts only extend to the subject 
of fallowing, the charges of which he states to have amounted to £16 
per acre, thus : — 

Labor, breaking up the clover ley and 3 subsequent 

ploughings, £3 12 6 

Eleven harrowings, at ten acres per day, 90 

Manure, one and a half wagon-load of lime, between the 

third and fourth ploughings, 7 10 

Carting and spreading ditto, 6 

Seed, two and a half bushels of wheat, at 10s 1 5 

Sowing and rolling, , 1 6 

Rent and taxes for the year of fallow, 1 10 

Ditto for the year of crop, 1 10 

£16 4 



180 FALLOW CROPS AND 

'' In order to effect this, he adopted several new im- 
plements, chiefly of his own invention, for a description 
of which we must refer to his ' New System of Cultiva- 
tion,' as we have only seen the scarifier in use. This is 
of a light construction, and certainly performs well ; 
though, upon land such as that described by the General, 
it is worked by a pair of horses, and sometimes more, 
instead of one. 

" He conceived that the grand source of all the heavy 
expenses of the old method might be traced to the fallow 
itself, and to the mode of preparing it — ' by bringing up 
immense slags with the plough, by reversing the soil, and 
thus burying the seeds of weeds that had fallen on the 
surface, by which a foundation is laid for all the subse- 
quent laborious and expensive operations.' To avoid 
these, he therefore thought it necessary to proceed in a 
different manner — ' to only break and crumble the sur- 
face-soil, to any depth that may be required ; to burn 
and destroy the weeds ; after which he would have the 
land in a fine and clean state of pulverization, and in 
readiness for receiving the seed, without losing a year's 
rent and taxes ; and all this at a mere trifle of expense, 
when compared with that which is incurred by a fallow.' 

" In pursuance of this, he reduced the ploughing to a 
single operation at the depth of four inches. The chief 
use, indeed, which he made of the plough was to open 
furrows at twenty-seven inches apart, which was per- 
formed by a couple of horses at the rate of three acres 
per day, and was merely intended to prepare the land for 
the scarifiers, ' which, by passing twice across these 
furrows, loosen all the stubble and roots of weeds, which 
are afterwards, with a small portion of the soil, placed in 
heaps and burned.' By these means, together with the 
more frequent repetition of the horse-hoeing, and the in- 
troduction of the row-culture, the General assures us 
* that his lands were rendered much cleaner, and yielded 
better crops than they did formerly, after all the heavy 
expenses of lime and fallows.' He indeed states, that 
these operations produced the effect of pulverization to 
the depth of six or seven inches, and their expense was — 



NAKED FALLOWS. 181 

Five scarifyings, with a single-horse 

implement, at Is. 8d. per acre, £0 8 4 
Two harrowings, at 10| ... 19 

£0 10 1 

that the whole charge of cultivation, under a four-course 
system upon this plan, including rent, was — . 

Tares, beans, peas, &c. per acre, .£5 
Wheat, .....". 5 
Oats and barley, . . " . 3 13 6 
Clover and rye-grass, . '' . 2 15 

£16 8 6 

thus only amounting to a trifle more than that of the fal- 
low upon the former plan ; that land cultivated upon his 
farm in this manner has yielded 460 sheaves of wheat per 
acre, whilst the average produce of the other fields did 
not exceed 360 ; and that the difference in favor of the 
new method amounts, upon an average — when wheat is 
at 105. the bushel — to <£350 per annum upon the cultiva- 
tion of 100 acres." — British Husbandry. 

We have endeavored, as we proposed, to demonstrate 
the practicability of improving the soil, of increasing its 
products and its profits ; of thereby multiplying the means 
of subsistence and comfort ; of rendering our farmers, 
who must give the impress to our character as a people, 
more intelligent, industrious, and virtuous, and our nation 
truly independent ; we have endeavored, we say, to show, 
that all these desirable ends may be promoted by manu- 
ring, draining, and good tillage ; by alternating husbandry, 
by extending the culture of root crops, and by substituting 
fallow crops for naked fallow^s. We have endeavored 
also to show, that our suggestions, in all these branches 
of improvement, are sanctioned by the principles of sci- 
ence, and have been amply verified in practice. If the 
principles we have assumed be correct, and the practice 
we recommend in conformity with the sound principles of 
natural philosophy, then the old-fashioned farmer is ad- 
monished thereby to change his course of practice, if 
he would prosper in his business, — to study, to practise, 
and to adopt the new system of husbandry, so far as his 
16 XV. 



182 ADAPTATION OF 

soil and circumstances will permit ; — to drain his wet lands, 
economize his manures, and to apply them before they 
are half wasted, — to till well what he does till, — to alter- 
nate his crops, — to extend his root and clover culture, — 
to increase his stock as the products of his farm will per- 
mit, — and to substitute fallow crops for summer fallows. 
And the settler on new lands is admonished to adopt a 
like course, if he would preserve the fertility of his soil, 
and render his lands permanently productive. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ON THE ADAPTATION OF PARTICULAR CROPS TO CERTAIN 
SOILS. 

It is well known that certain plants are found to abound 
most naturally in particular soils, and that some plants are 
almost exclusively confined to such — as primitive, transi- 
tion, and secondary ; sihcious, calcareous, or argillaceous; 
dry or wet ; rich or poor ; — and botanists pretend to deter- 
mine, from the examination of a plant, its pecuhar habita- 
tion. It is reasonable to conclude, from analogy, that 
cultivated plants have their preferences, as to soil, as well 
as those which grow naturally. Indeed, we have abun- 
dant proofs of this fact, in our ordinary farming opera- 
tions. This subject has long engaged the attention of Dr. 
Von Thaer, the distinguished Principal of the Prussian 
school of Moegehn. The following table exhibits a clas- 
sification of soils, particularly adapted to the crops designa- 
ted, with their elementary parts, and relative value, both 
in regard to the soils and the crops which they produce. 
Although the real value of every rotation depends, in a 
great measure, upon the manner in which its several pro- 
cesses are executed, and upon the demands of the mar- 
ket ; yet, abstractly speaking, some courses must be con- 
sidered as better than others, because the crops may be 
more suitable to the peculiar qualities of the land on which 
they are to be grown. 



CROPS TO SOILS. 



183 











a ^ 












. 


•^ a 








SOILS. 




-og 


"o " 






o 






^ ?i^ 




S " 


3 

13 


^ 




74 


Cl- 
io 


o 


X P- 


> 


1 


1 r 


4^ 


lU 


100 


2 


! First class of strong wheat 
( soils, 


81 


6 


4 


8^ 


98 


.S 


79 


20 


4 


6* 


96 


4 




40 


22 


36 


4 


90 


5 


Rich barley land, . . . 


20 


67 


3 


10 


78 


6 

7 


\ Good wheat land, . . ! 


58 
56 


36 
30 


2 
12 


4 

2 


77 

75 


8 


J r 


60 


38 




2 


70 


9 


\ Ordinary wheat land, . ? 


48 


50 


" 


2 


651 


10 
11 


Good barley land. 


68 
38 


30 
60 




2 
2 


60 
60 


12 
18 


> Ordinary barley land, . < 

> Oat and rye land, . . \ 


33 
28 


65 
70 


-5 s 


2 
2 


50 
40 


14 
15 


23i 
18J 


75 

80 


QQ 




30 
20 



It will be perceived that the wheat soils possess from 
40 to 81 per cent, of clay, from 4 to 36 of carbonate of 
lime, and from 4 to 11 J of humus, or geine. Lime seems 
to be an indispensable ingredient in a wheat soil. Neither 
barley, oats, nor rye, and we may extend the remark to 
Indian corn and turnips, and indeed to many other farm 
products, requires carbonate of hme, though this always 
gives a chemical and mechanical improvement to the 
soil, by rendering sands more compact, and more reten- 
tive of moisture and manure, and clays more light and 
pervious to atmospheric and solar influence, and to the 
roots of the crop. All the soils in which sand pre- 
dominates over clay, are best adapted to the growth of 
Indian corn, turnips, clover, &c., though the product will 
depend on the soluble organic matter in the soil, and the 
fidelity of the culture. 

Nos. 1, 2, and 3 are alluvial soils of the richest quahty, 
and embrace much of the land upon the lower flats of riv- 
ers coming from secondary and transition formations, and 
a large portion, it is believed, of the secondary formation 



184 ADAPTATION OF 

lying west of the Alleghany range of mountains ; and from 
the abundance of vegetable mould, or humus, which such 
soils contain, and the intimate state of admixture with 
earthy materials in which it is found, they are not so stiff 
as the quantity of clay which they contain would seem to 
indicate. But their texture will become more compact 
as the vegetable matter becomes exhausted by bad hus- 
bandry. From the absence of hme in most of the prim- 
itive formation east of the Alleghanies, many districts, 
although not deficient in the other ingredients, are not 
found congenial to the growth of wheat. 

No. 4 is a fine clay loam, such as abounds in many 
limestone districts, and contains a very large proportion 
of carbonate of lime. The application of lime or marl to 
such a soil would be a waste of time and money. Indeed, 
while there is four per cent, of carbonate of lime in a 
soil, it is doubted whether these applications can be made 
with any advantage. 

No. 5 may be termed a very rich sand loam, in which 
there is one fifth clay, one tenth humus, or organic mat- 
ter, and a sufiiciency of carbonate of lime for ordinary 
purposes. This soil is easily worked, is adapted to al- 
ternate husbandry, if made dry, and, although graduated 
a tenth below No. 1, is probably as profitable a soil as 
the farmer can cultivate. 

Nos. 6 and 7 may be denominated kind clay soils, 
about upon a par with No. 5, clay more preponderating 
in their composition, and with less than half the humus 
that No. 5 contains — a deficiency, however, which a 
good farmer would soon contrive to remedy. 

Nos. 8, 9, and 10 are rated of less value than the 
preceding, because they are deficient in carbonate of lime 
and humus. Upon these, it is presumed, mild lime, and 
marl, and ashes would prove beneficial, and would raise 
them to the value of Nos. 6 and 7. All of these num- 
bers, and those which follow, may be considered as corn, 
turnip, and clover soils, if the deficiency of humus is sup- 
plied by manuring. 

Nos. 10, 11, and 12 form the lightest classes of 
soils, and are termed sandy, from the preponderance of 



CROPS TO SOILS. 185 

sand over clay. These lack carbonate of lime, and humus 
and clay ; and clay-marl or blue clay, or indeed any clay, 
properly applied, would constitute an excellent dressing 
for them. Green crops, of any sort, turned under with 
the plough, are here particularly serviceable. "When 
duly enriched they will bear good rye. Clover, or other 
green crops, should frequently intervene in the alterna- 
tion. If dry, sheep may be advantageously pastured 
upon them. 

We will here make some suggestions as to the mode 
of applying marl or clay to sandy lands, though at the risk 
of repeating what we may have already said upon this 
subject. The object of the apphcation is to improve the 
absorbent and retentive properties of the soil, as it regards 
moisture and manure. It is hence important that the 
clay or marl should be pulverized and intimately incor- 
porated with the soil. Pulverization can only be effect- 
ed by exposing the marl or clay to the action of the frosts, 
rains, and the sun. If laid upon the ground in masses, 
or heaps, pulverization is but partially effected, and that 
only upon the surface of the heaps. It is advisable there- 
fore, and it is the practice we have settled upon, to draw 
the clay or marl on to the ground in autumn or winter, 
and to spread from the carts, as far as its adhesive quali- 
ty will permit, over the entire surface of the field. The 
lumps become saturated with rain, the frosts penetrate, 
expand their volume, and loosen their adhesive proper- 
ties, and when the clay or marl afterwards becomes dry, 
they may be broken down by a maul, and pretty well 
pulverized and distributed by the roller and harrow. The 
operations of tillage will then produce as good a mix- 
ture as can be expected. Were the attempt made* to 
blend these materials with the soil, without the prepara- 
tory process of pulverization, much of the benefit of the 
application would be lost. Besides, the clay and marl, 
by exposure to atmospheric influence, part with deleteri- 
ous properties which they often possess when drawn from 
the pit, and are ameliorated and enriched by the atmo- 
sphere. Judging from experience, we consider twenty 
or thirty-two horse loads of blue clay, containing, like that 
16* 



186 THE EFFECTS OF 

about Albany, 25 to 30 per cent, of carbonate of lime, 
applied, agreeably to the foregoing directions, to an acre 
of land like Nos. 14 and 15 of the above table, of 
more ultimate benefit than an equal number of loads of 
barn-yard manure. 

The majority of soils do not contain more than five 
per cent, of humus ; and, as we have observed, many 
contain little or no carbonate of Hme. Without the first, 
no admixture of earths can be productive ; and without the 
latter, wheat, and probably some other farm-crops, can- 
not be grown to advantage. Yet where there is a due 
admixture of sand and clay, two per cent, of carbonate 
of lime, and an equal proportion of humus, will render 
the soil productive, for a season, or until the lime and the 
dung are too far exhausted by the growing crops. Sandy 
soils are much more easily wrought than clay soils ; and 
if they are tolerably well dunged and managed, or if green 
crops are made frequently to alternate, they make a good 
return to the husbandman. Under constant tillage they 
are soon exhausted ; and it is but seldom they are found 
to yield a succession of grass crops. Alternate husbandry 
should therefore, at aH events, be resorted to upon soils 
of this description. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

EFFECTS OF CROPPING AND MANURING. 

The reader will find a further illustration of the bene- 
fits of manuring, of alternating crops, and of aboHshing 
naked fallows, in the facts and suggestions which we are 
about to present him. 

We have heretofore endeavored to make it plain, that 
living and dead plants contain the same elementary mat- 
ters, — that dead plants afford the proper aliment for liv- 
ing plants, — and that, consequently, the fertility of a soil 
will be increased or diminished, in proportion to the quan- 
tity of dung or organic matter which is returned to it, 



CROPPING AND MANURING. 187 

compared to the quantity which is taken from it by crop- 
ping. New or virgin soils may contain a large supply 
of vegetable matter, or humus, or soluble geine, terms 
which mean much the same thing, or they may contain 
an abundance of the specific food of certain plants, as of 
wheat, for instance, enough to feed several successive 
crops ; yet the powers of fertility are diminished by ev- 
ery succeeding one, if the crops are carried off from the 
field, and nothing returned to it to supply the loss, — until 
finally, if the system of cropping goes on in this way, 
the food of plants will become exhausted, and the land 
sterile and barren, for all the profitable purposes of hus- 
bandry. If we look to the old continent, we shall per- 
ceive that large districts, once fertile and populous, have, 
by the injudicious management of the husbandman, be- 
come almost waste and depopulated. A great portion 
of Egypt, of India, of Asia Minor, of the Barbary 
States, and of Spain, which once sustained their millions 
of inhabitants, and were to the world examples in the arts 
of culture and civilization, may be cited in illustration of 
this fact. And if we will turn our eye upon the Atlantic 
border of this new continent — new at least in culti- 
vation and improvement — we shall see ample evidence 
of the melancholy tendency of the old, the exhausting 
system of husbandry. We shall see millions of acres of 
once fertile lands, formerly in as high repute as the El 
Dorado of the west — the land of promise — worn out and 
exhausted of their fertility, by the old wretched system of 
cropping, cropping, cropping, until they have been thrown 
into " old fields^^'' or commons, as unworthy of culture. 
And even in the. fertile west, from the abuse of those 
who are charged with their culture, are the lands in some 
districts assuming the garb of old age and unproductive- 
ness, and their occupants are passing further west, to seek 
out and exhaust the patrimony destined for coming gen- 
erations. 

If we put an ox to a stack of hay, he may subsist upon 
it a longer or shorter time, according to the quantity of 
food which it contains. A constant diminution of his food 
is going on ; and although he may feed and fatten till the 



188 THE EFFECTS OF 

last lock is consumed, it is very certain, that unless the 
stack, or the food, is replenished, the ox, when the stack 
is consumed, will hunger and die, for want of nourish- 
ment. The organic matter in the soil is the stack of 
hay, and the crops are the ox. As long as the organic 
matter continues in sufficient quantity, the crops will 
thrive ; but the moment the organic matter is exhausted, 
or is deficient in quantity, the crops, like the ox, will 
pine and die, for want of food. The herdsman takes 
care to provide fresh food for the ox before the stock of 
hay is exhausted ; and the prudent farmer will take like 
precaution to provide for the coming wants of his crops. 
Providence has imparted fertihty to the soil for the benefit 
of man, to whose management He has intrusted it ; and 
He has endowed him with the faculty, and provided abun- 
dant means, of perpetuating that fertility. How reckless 
and improvident do we consider the young spendthrift, 
who wantonly squanders his paternal inheritance. He 
not only injures himself, and perverts a noble object of 
his being — that of doing good to his fellows — but he does 
injury to others by his bad example, and robs his chil- 
dren of their inheritance. The contemner of Nature's 
laws, who wantonly wastes the bounties of Providence, 
by a reckless, exhausting system of husbandry, does injury 
to himself and others of a like nature, though not perhaps 
to equal extent, nor in so glaring a manner, as the spend- 
thrift who squanders, in vice and folly, his paternal estate. 
Crops exhaust the fertility of the soil in proportion to 
the nourishment they respectively draw from it. To keep 
up our comparison with the animal kingdom, we may 
liken our grain crops to our cattle and .horses, which are 
gross feeders, and consume a large quantity of food ; and 
our grass and roots to sheep and swine, which consume 
less, which thrive on comparatively scanty and coarse 
fare, and in a measure requite us for their food, by their 
intrinsic value, and by the fertility which they impart to 
the soil. The hog and the sheep, the grass and the roots, 
will live upon the pasture or soil which will not sustain 
the more gross feeders — the grain and the cattle — yet, 
like the latter, they will only thrive well when well fed. 



CROPPING AND MANURING. 189 

Von Thaer, who has not, perhaps, his superior m the 
practical and scientific business of farming any where, 
has turned his attention, for several years, to a series of 
experiments and observations, with a view to ascertain 
the degree of diminution or augmentation of fertility, 
which soils ordinarily experience from the culture of the 
principal farm-crops, and has combined the results of his 
observations in a series of tables. Although these do 
not possess perfect accuracy, for any thing hke this would 
be impossible from the nature of the inquiry, they never- 
theless serve as useful data to farmers who are anxious to 
preserve or to increase the fertihty of their soils, by ju- 
dicious rotations, and by applying all the means of fertility 
which the farm affords. 

"The vegetative power," says ' British Husbandry,' 
" is supposed to be in proportion to the quantity of hu- 
mus, (or soluble vegetable matter,) or mould, which is 
contained in the soil, and its consumption has been found 
to be regulated according to the amount of nutritive mat- 
ter consumed by the crops which are grown upon it. 
The degrees of exhaustion thus occasioned, have only 
been fixed by naturahsts with any degree of certainty, in 
so far as regards the usual species of cultivated grain and 
pulse ; for, as to the other products of the earth, although 
they have doubtless similar effects when similarly repeat- 
ed, yet those which consist of vegetable roots and grasses, 
and which are drawn from the land before they have per- 
fected their seed, are nevertheless — whether from the in- 
fluence attributed to their shade upon the soil, from 
sustenance drawn from the air and water, or from other 
causes with which we are not acquainted — only viewed 
as amehorating crops. Corn crops are, however, consid- 
ered respectively to exhaust in proportions which render 
the proportion of about 4| bushels of wheat equal to that 
of 6 bushels of rye, 8J of barley, and 12 of oats." 

"According to all the experiments which have been 
made, there is reason to suppose, however, that upon a 
soil of moderate fertility, an average crop of wheat em- 
poverishes the land to the extent of 40 per cent., while 
one of rye only produces that effect as far as 30. Al- 



190 THE EFFECTS OF 

though barley is more exhausting than oats, yet, upon 
strong land, in a less perfect state of culture, the latter 
produces proportionably larger crops, consequently ab- 
sorbs more nutriment ; and, for this reason, they may 
be both stated at 25 per cent. 

" The exhaustion by these crops is proportionably re- 
paired, and the land is restored to its former nutritive 
powers, in three ways, namely — 

" By the application of putrescent manure ; according 
to its quantity and quality. 

''By the ground being left a certain time under pasture ; 
according to the number of stock which it can support. 

'' By the operation of a summer fallow ; according to 
the manner in which it is performed." 

Von Thaer considers the exhaustion by grain crops in 
the following relative proportions : — Wheat 4 degrees, 
rye SJ, barley 2^, oats ly%-, per bushel of product ; that 
upon poor soils, whose original fecundity is 40, according 
to the scale given in the preceding chapter, a fallow adds 
10 degrees to its fertility, pasture 20, and 8 tons of ma- 
nure, of ordinary quality, 50 degrees — so that the manure 
and fallow, or manure and pasture, add 60 or 70 degrees, 
and are more than sufficient to double what the crop would 
have been without them. Without them, a crop of rye 
would have yielded but five bushels per acre ; with them, 
the yield would be 7 J to 10 bushels. A fallow is bene- 
ficial, not only on account of the fertihzing properties it 
may draw from the atmosphere, and by the influence of 
working the land, but from the weeds and vegetable mat- 
ters which it buries in the soil. Pasture is fertilized by 
the droppings of the stock, and the rich sward it gives to 
the plough and to the tilled crop. 

In the two following tables, the journal^ which is about 
two thirds of an English acre, is the measure of land ex- 
perimented upon. The schiffel is more than a bushel 
and a half, Winchester measure. These tables are pre- 
dicated upon accurate experiments, and show the aug- 
mentation or diminution of fertility, caused by the crops, 
the manures, the pasture, and the fallow. 



CROPPING AND MANURING. 



191 



TRIENNIAL SYSTEM. 



Fecundity, 



\yiu^o u/iiUf ui/U/ii/Uii vo. 


•Augmentation. 


Diminution. 


Fallow, 


10 deg. 




6 4-10 loads of manure, 


67 deg. 




Rye, 6 schiffels. 




30 deg. 


Barley, 6 do. 




21 deg. 


Fallow, . . . 


10 deg. 




Rye, 3J schifFels, . 




171 deg. 


Oats, 4 do. . 




10 deg. 


Fallow, light folded, 


28 deg. 




Rye, . . . . 




20 deg. 


Oats, . . . . 




lOi deg. 



115 deg. 109 deg. 

By which course, land would gain six degrees of fer- 
tility in nine years, provided the manure was that of well- 
fed cattle ; but if principally straw, it probably would oc- 
casion no amendment. 



ALTERNATE SYSTEM. 






Fecundity. 


Crops and manures. 






Augmentation. 


Diminution. 


9 loads of dung. 


90 deg. 




Potatoes,* 80 schiffels. 


10 deg. 


30 deg. 


Barley, 9 do. 




31ideg. 


Peas, .... 




10 deg. 


3| loads of manure, . 


37i deg. 




Rye, 8 schifFels, 




40 deg. 


Clover, mown. 


12 deg. 




Pasture, 


20 deg. 




Oats, 11 schifFels, . 




27i deg. 



169i deg. 139 deg. 

* The augmentation of fertility is here added, because of the culture 
bestowed upon the potatoes as a fallow crop, the value of which is 
considered equal to 10 degrees. 



192 THE EFFECTS OF 

This course would augment the fertility of the soil, in 
eight years, SOJ degrees, besides producing crops of 
superior value. This increase is owing to the clover 
and pasture, and the additional quantity, as well as su- 
perior quality of the dung, made by cattle fed upon roots 
and clover. Land is progressively improved by the pro- 
duction of good crops, consumed upon the farm, and the 
manure which they supply, if the latter is properly hus- 
banded and applied. 

This will be rendered still more apparent by the fol- 
lowing summary of four different rotations actually carried 
into effect, and each consisting of 120 journals, or equal 
to 76.1.6 11-5 acres English, and bearing the crops here 
mentioned, after deducting the seed. 

No. 1. 

Courses of crops. Product per journal. 

Fallow dunged. 

Rye, .... 8 J schiffels. 

Barley, .... 8J do. 

Oats, .... 8 do. 

Clover and mown, . . 14 centnus.* 

Ditto pasture two years, together with 170 journals of 
extra meadow and sheep-pasture. 

No. 2. 

Oats upon pasture ley, . 12 schiffels. 
Fallow dunged. 

Rye, . . . . 10 do. 

Barley, .... 10 do. 

Rye, .... 5 do. 

Clover and mown, . . 20 centnus. 
Ditto pastured two years, together with 100 journals 
of extra pasture meadow, dunged. 

No. 3. 

Potatoes, ... 87 schiffels. 

Barley, .... 12 do. 

Clover, .... 24 centnus. 

* The centnu is 103 lbs. English. 



CROPPING AND MANURING. 



193 



Oats, . . . . 14 schiffels. 

Peas, . . . . 6 do. 

Rye, . . . . 10 do. 

Tares, .... 20 centnus. 

Rye, .... 9 schiiFels. 

Meadow dunged, . . 15 centnus. 

Besides 100 journals sheep-pasture. 

No. 4. 

Oats upon pasture ley, . 14 schiffels. 

Fallow, sown both before and after 



with winter and spr 

fodder, 
Rye, 
Peas, 
Rye, 
Potatoes, 
Barley, 
Clover mown, . 



ng tares for 



20 centnus. 
10 schiffels. 

6 do. 

9 do. 
87 do. 
12 do. 
24 centnus. 



Ditto pastured with sheep 2 years. 
Meadow, 150 journals dunged, 15 centnus. 

The produce of these several crops, both in fodder 
and manure, as well as in grain, and the profit gained by 
feeding of stock, were then summed up, and being calcu- 
lated according to the price of grain, were reduced to 
schiffels of rye, from which were deducted the charges 
of cultivation, thus affording a parallel between the dif- 
ferent courses, as follows : — 



o 


Product of 

straw. 


Produce of fod- 
der, reduced in 
wt. to an esti- 
mate in hay. 


Manure. 


Profit on 
cattle. 


Profit of 
grain. 


Nett 
balance. 




Centnus. 


Centnus. 


Centnus. 


Schiffels. 


Schiffels. 


Schiffels. 


1 


4173 


2936 


14219 


992 


1948 


1869 


2 


6464 


4650 


22228 


1651 


2958 


3028 


3 


7916 


9120 


29272 


2430 


2960 


3458 


4 


10973 


12315 


41791 


3178 


4323 


5188 



It appears from these results, that the fertility of the 
soil, and the consequent profits of the farm, were in- 
creased. 



17 



XV. 



194 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

First. In proportion to the augmentation of manure, by 
reason of meadow, green crops, and roots ; 

Secondly. In proportion to the increased ratio which 
the above-named crops and pasture bear to the grain 
crops. And, 

Thirdly. In proportion to the amount of pasture. 

And it will be further seen, that the courses were 
profitable, and the fertility of the soil increased, in propor- 
tion as green, leguminous, and root crops were alternated 
with grain crops — the two first, and least profitable courses, 
giving three grain crops in successive years — the third 
course intervening clover, peas, or tares between the grain 
crops — and the fourth and most profitable course alter- 
nating dry, green, leguminous, and root crops, followed by 
clover mown or pastured three years. 

The inference from these experiments, made by one of 
the most intelligent and careful of men, is, that if we would 
preserve or increase the fertility of our lands, and thus 
augment the profits of our labor, we should not sow dry 
crops for two successive years, upon the same field — but 
alternate them, as far as practicable, with roots, legumens, 
green crops, meadow, and pasture. 

The reader will find these matters more largely treat- 
ed of in 'British Husbandry,' and particularly in Von 
Thaer's works on agriculture. 



CHAPTER XX. 

RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

We shall now proceed to offer some rules and sugges- 
tions in husbandry, of general application, to enable far- 
mers, and particularly novices in the business, to judge of 
the character and qualities of their soil, — of its adaptation 
to particular crops, — of the causes of deterioration, — and 
of the means of perpetuating its fertility ; or, if worn out 
or empoverished, of restoring it to its primitive vigor. 
These facts or suggestions form a sort of synopsis, or 



RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 195 

epitome, of what has been stated in the preceding essays 
of the principles and practice of the New Husbandry. 
Though they may not in all cases fully apply, they will 
in the main, we believe, be sound and useful. 

1. The essential elements of a good soil, are sand, 
clay, lime, and organic matter. Magnesia, iron, and vari- 
ous other minerals and salts, are often found blended with 
the preceding ; but in general they are not considered as 
exercising a great influence upon its fertility, except they 
exist in more than ordinary proportions. 

2. The presence of sand, clay, and vegetable matter 
in a soil, is deemed indispensable to all crops ; and lime, 
in some of its forms, is considered indispensable to wheat, 
and perhaps some other crops, and prejudicial to none, 
where it is in moderate quantity. 

3. The presence of sand and clay is readily detected 
by the experienced eye ; that of vegetable matter by the 
consistence and color of the soil ; and that of carbonate 
of lime, or calcareous earth, by drying a portion of soil, 
and pouring upon it some acid, as the muriatic, or even 
strong vinegar. If it contain any considerable portion of 
carbonate of lime, effervescence will take place, and the 
carbonic acid be expelled by the application. The pro- 
portions in the elements of a soil are ascertained by chem- 
ical analysis. 

4. Sand is the most essential in the earthy ingredients 
of soils, and most predominates in them, though where it 
exceeds eighty-two per cent, the soil is virtually barren, 
for it is then too porous to retain long either moisture or 
manure. Clay is next in importance and proportion ; but 
when it greatly preponderates, the soil becomes stubborn, 
is hard to be worked, is too retentive of moisture, too im- 
pervious to atmospheric influence, and is more or less un- 
productive. 

Lime exists in the smallest proportion, and is least 
essential of the three common earths, and from two to four 
per cent, of the upper tillable stratum is all that is deemed 
essential to the growth and maturity of any crop. When 
lime is in excess it induces barrenness, though calcareous 
soils are considered conducive to the health of the neigh- 



196 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

borhood, imbibing or neutralizing, like chlorine, the im- 
purities of the atmosphere. Organic matter, that is, vege- 
table or animal, is indispensable in a soil. It is the food of 
plants. Yet even this is often found in excess, as in peat, 
and in too highly manured grounds, and is often insoluble, 
or infertile, till mixed with larger portions of earthy mat- 
ters, or brought in contact with fermenting materials. 

5. When there is perceived to be a deficiency of sand, 
of clay, or lime in a soil, the defect may be remedied, 
and permanent improvement effected, by an admixture of 
the deficient element or elements. When there is an ex- 
cess of ehher, it can only be remedied by a similar but 
more tedious process. Thus a load of clay, properly 
blended with an arid sand, — or a load of sand mixed with 
a stubborn clay, or a few bushels of mild lime, or marl, or 
ashes, upon a soil deficient in calcareous earth, often prove 
of more ultimate service than a load of barn-yard manure. 
But, 

6. Both lime and dung, the latter in far the greatest 
proportion, are taken up and consumed by the growing 
crop ; and if the crops are not consumed upon the field, 
so that their principal elements return again directly to 
the soil, the land must be periodically replenished with 
them, or it will soon become deficient in these elements of 
fertility. 

7. The sand and clay of the soil may be hkened, in 
their offices, to the stomach of the animal — the recipient 
of food ; the lime and salts to the gastric juices, which 
facihtate the digestive process in the animal stomach, and 
to the condiments, as salt, &c., which we employ to stim- 
ulate the digestive organs and promote health ; and the 
organic matters in the soil to the food which feeds and 
fattens the animal. 

8. If the crops grown upon a soil are permitted to de- 
cay upon, and return again to it, its fertility will not be 
diminished, but rather improved. It is upon this princi- 
ple that the Flemings have converted sterile lands into fer- 
tile ones. They plant the larch, and in a few years the 
soil becomes so enriched by the foliage of the trees, as to 
afford, after the wood is cleared off, tolerable crops, and 



RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 197 

the nucleus of greater improvement. But when the crop 
is carried off, and nothing returned, deterioration must 
take place — the food for the vegetables must undergo a 
continual diminution. This is a plain exposition of the 
cause of hnds^ wearing out ; and at the same time of the 
means of preventing their wearing out. 

9. All the elements of a good soil being present, its 
fertility, and consequent profit, will in a measure depend 
upon its exemption from an excess of water, which, like 
fire, is a good servant, but a bad master. This excess 
may arise from spouts and springs bursting up from below, 
— from surface-waters, where the ground is level, or near- 
ly so, settling and reposing upon a tenacious soil or sub- 
soil, or from waters flowing from higher grounds. Hence 
the importance of draining. We do not know of any 
farm-crop which thrives upon a soil habitually wet, either 
upon the surface, or within the natural range of the roots. 
Water meadows and rice grounds profit by periodical 
floodings, but they are injured by habitual wetness. 

10. Fertility depends much, also, upon the quality and 
properties of the subsoil. If this is bad, or comes too 
near the surface, its faults may be corrected by furrow- 
draining, and the trench or subsoil plough, or by bringing 
it up, in small portions at a time, or during a course of 
crops, to the ameliorating influence of the atmosphere, 
and incorporating it with the upper stratum, or proper 
soil. 

11. If a soil, under good management, does not return 
good crops, or if the crops are found annually to diminish, 
it is a sure indication that there is a deficiency in some 
of the primary elements of a good soil, that the subsoil 
has a malign influence, or that there is an excess of water. 
It is the province of the manager to seek out the cause 
of the evil, and to apply the proper remedy, be it lime, 
manure, drainage, or deeper tilth. In doing this, a knowl- 
edge of natural science will be found of great advantage. 

12. The small-grain crops are the greatest exhausters 
of the fertility of the soil, on account of their narrow system 
of leaves, which draw sparingly from the atmosphere, 
and the large portion of nutriment they extract from it to 

17* 



198 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

mature their seeds. The remark extends to the narrow- 
leaved grasses, converted into hay, when they are permit- 
ted to ripen their seeds in the field. 

13. Indian corn, tobacco, and beans maybe embraced 
in the second class of exhausting crops ; for, although they 
have broad leaves, and derive much nourishment from the 
atmosphere, they are nevertheless gross feeders, bulky 
crops, and leave very httle upon the soil to compensate 
for what they take from it. But great economy in dung may 
be effected by feeding these crops with the long manure of 
the yards and stables, instead of summer-yarding it, as 
many farmers are wont to do. These crops will feed 
upon what is otherwise lost in the yard, — the gaseous 
matters of the dung. These afford exactly what the 
crops named want, and at the time they want it. 

14. Roots come next in the order of exhausting crops ; 
but they in part compensate for what they take from the 
soil by the ameliorating influence they have upon it, pulver- 
izing and freeing it from weeds — by their roots and the 
culture they demand. 

15. Green crops, that is, clover, buckwheat, rye, oats, 
turnips, and even weeds before they seed, ploughed un- 
der as food for plants in their green^ succulent state, are 
enriching crops, and powerful auxiliaries in keeping up 
the fertility of the farm ; but they are too seldom resorted 
to for this purpose. 

16. Depasturing with cattle, and particularly with 
sheep, enriches a soil. According to Von Thaer, it adds 
20 per cent, to the fertility of an ordinary soil, that is, in 
five years it will double its fecundity. This results from 
the fact, that the crop is returned to the soil in the drop- 
pings and stale of the animals which crop it. 

17. Not only do different crops tend to exhaust differ- 
ent properties of the soil, denominated their specific food 
— but different crops, in consequence of their different 
systems of roots, draw their food from different portions 
of the soil : the fibrous-rooted from near the surface, and 
the tap-rooted from below, and partially from the sub- 
soil, into which a portion of the humus is carried down 
by the rains, and into which the tap-roots penetrate to 
obtain it. 



RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 199 

18. Lime and clay are essential in a wheat soil. In- 
dian com delights in a rich, dry, sandy loam, and makes a 
good return on light sands, provided it is well fed, that is, 
well dunged. Turnips excel on dry, sandy soils, though 
ruta baga requires that they be rich. Barley does best 
on loams in which there is considerable clay, as do the 
beet and pea. Oats and potatoes find a congenial home in 
rich, moist grounds, though for the latter the surface stra- 
tum should be light and mellow. Of the grasses, the tap- 
rooted, as the clover, lucerne, &c. require a deep soil, per- 
meable to their roots, and free from water ; the fibrous- 
rooted, as the tall oat, orchard-grass, &c. thrive upon 
soils that are dry and shallow ; and the rough-stalked 
meadow, bent, and some of the festuca and agrostis fami- 
lies, are congenial to, and often natural in, moist or swampy 
grounds. The timothy, the herds-grass of the Eastern 
states, our main dependance for winter forage, adapts its 
habits, it is said, to its location — being fibrous-rooted 
upon dry, and bulbous-rooted upon moist grounds — and 
therefore suited to either. 

19. The natural fertility of a farm cannot ordinarily be 
kept up, or increased, where arable and mixed husbandry 
prevail, from the resources of the farm and cattle, without 
a resort to an alternation or change of crops. Although 
the diminution of fertility may be imperceptible for a time, 
— and although some soils seem naturally and peculiarly 
adapted to certain crops, — yet the stock of humus or of 
specific food is constantly diminishing, and will ultimately 
fail, if the same crop, or class of crops, is grown upon the 
same ground in successive years. Whether, according to 
the theory of De Candolla and Malcaire, the excrementi- 
tious matter thrown into the soil by the growing crop is 
poisonous to its species ; or whether, as we maintain, 
each species requires and exhausts, wholly or partially, a 
specific food in the soil, suited to its particular wants, — 
we will not stop now to inquire ; but it is a fact established 
by general experience, that an annual change of crops 
upon a field, while under tillage, tends very much to 
economize its fertility, and to increase the profits of the 
labor bestowed upon it. Hence, 



200 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

20. It has been laid down as a sound rule in farming, 
that two white, or grain, or culmiferous crops, should not 
be made to succeed each other in the same field ; but that 
each of these should be alternated with, or preceded and 
followed by, a green, a grass, a root, or a leguminous crop. 

21. Where the soil of a farm will admit of it, a good 
course is to alternate, — 1. roots or Indian corn, with 
long manure upon the sod ; 2. grain, with grass-seeds ; 
3. grass for two years ; or, grass one year ; 4. grain and 
grass-seeds upon the first furrow ; and, 5. and 6. meadow 
and pasture. The poorer, or more sandy the soil, the 
oftener should it be returned to grass, particularly to clo- 
ver and pasture. 

22. Geologists refer to three distinct formations, as 
constituting the crust of the earth — the primitive, as con- 
taining little lime and no organic remains ; the transition^ 
containing lime and organic remains ; and the secondary, 
abounding extensively in both these elements of fertility. 
Their natural relative fertility is in the reverse order in 
which they are named, the secondary being best, and em- 
bracing most of the great basin of the Mississippi, and the 
country drained by its tributary streams. We say noth- 
ing of alluvial formations, made by the ocean and rivers. 
These deposits partake of the character of the country 
from whence they are brought, and are more or less fer- 
tile, according to the fertility of the districts from which 
their soil is derived, and the force of the currents by which 
the deposits have been made, — a rapid current leaving 
only the coarser and heavier materials, while the finer and 
richer matters subside where the current is slow and less 
agitated. 

23. The three great formations which we have men- 
tioned, possess, it is well known, characteristics differing 
from each other. They grow, naturally, many plants 
peculiar to each, and they are adapted to difl^erent branch- 
es of husbandry, and to diiferent farm-crops. The 
primitive will not generally grow good wheat ; but is 
suited to grass, oats, potatoes, &c. The transition is 
adapted to natural grasses, and to most of the arable 
crops, particularly to the cereal class ; and the secondary 



RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 201 

to the cultivated grasses, to roots, and particularly to 
wheat.* 

24. There are other circumstances, in regard to the 
location of a farm, which demand the consideration of the 
master, which refer to latitude and elevation. Plants 
have their natural zone, or climate, beyond which they do 
not grow, or thrive but imperfectly. There is a differ- 
ence in every degree, or seventy miles, of latitude, upon 
tide-water, of five or six days, in the forwardness of nat- 
ural vegetation in the spring, and nearly a like difference 
in the blighting indications of autumn. But what is of 
equal importance, but less generally regarded, is the dif- 
ference in climate produced by altitude. Three hundred 
feet of elevation is considered equal to one degree of lat- 
itude, in its influence upon temperature. Hence it does 
not follow, that because a crop will thrive and ripen in a 
given latitude upon tide-water, it will thrive and ripen 
well in the same latitude at a higher elevation. On the 
contrary, to be better understood, we say, that, other 
things being ahke, the climate on tide-water, in latitude 
42°, is similar to that of a place three hundred feet eleva- 
ted above tide-water in latitude 41°, or of a place nine 
hundred feet above tide-water in latitude 39° ; so that the 
table-land of Mexico, in latitude 16°, at an elevation of 
seven thousand eight hundred feet above the ocean, 

* An able writer in the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, 
in reference to these formations, terms the primitive, which it seems 
comprises the most elevated lands in Scotland, the region of heath and 
coarse herbage ; the transition, the natural region of the grasses ; and 
the secondary, the region of the cultivated grasses, and particularly 
adapted to arable and alternate husbandry. He assigns to each a par- 
ticular and distinct breed of cattle. To the first, or higher region, a 
thick-haired, small, hardy breed ; to the second, or middle region, those 
of large size ; and to the third, or lower region, those that are more 
sensitive to cold, gross feeders, and that acquire the greatest weight. 
He then goes on to show, from numerous examples, that the several 
breeds are the most profitable in the several districts assigned them ; 
and that they have been manifestly improved, in most cases, by a judi- 
cious cross with the improved short horns. There is much good sense 
in the writer's remarks ; and although the description of the three for- 
mations does not fully apply in the United States, the remarks as to 
the influence of altitude or climate, upon different breeds of domestic 
animals, are entitled to high consideration. 



202 RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 

should possess about the same mean temperature, and 
produce the same natural and artificial growth, as Kings- 
ton, upon the Hudson, though the extremes, both of heat 
and cold, are probably greater at the northern than they 
are at the southern point.* These data are assumed from 
recollection, and may not be precisely correct. 

25. The means of preserving, and of augmenting, the 
fertihty of the soil, are sufficiently indicated in the pre- 
ceding suggestions. They consist mainly in manuring, 



* "All the western part of the intendancy of Vera Cruz," says 
Humboldt, in his New Spain, " forms the declivity of the Cordilleras 
of Anahuac. In the space of a day, the inhabitants descend from the 
regions of eternal snow to the plains in the vicinity of the sea, where 
the most suffocating heat prevails. The admirable order with which 
different tribes of vegetables rise one above another, by strata as it 
were, is nowhere more perceptible than in ascending from the port of 
Vera Cruz to the table-land of Perote. We see there the physiogno- 
my of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, the fig- 
ures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of culti- 
vation followed by them, assume a different appearance at every step 
of our progress. 

" As we ascend, Nature appears gradually less animated, the beauty 
of the vegetable forms diminishes, the shoots become less succulent, 
and the flowers less colored. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets 
the alarms of a traveller newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence de- 
monstrates to him that he has left behind him the zone so justly dread- 
ed by the people of the north, under which the yellow fever exercises 
its ravages in New Spain. This inferior limit of oaks warns the colonist 
who inhabits the central table-land how far he may descend towards 
the coast, without dread of the mortal disease of the vomito. Forests of 
liquid amber, near Xalapa, announce by the freshness of their verdure 
that this is the elevation at which the clouds, suspended over the ocean, 
come in contact with the basaltic summits of the Cordilleras. A little 
higher, near la Bandarila, the nutritive fruit of the banana-tree comes 
no longer to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, want 
spurs on the Indian to labor, and excites his industry. At the height 
of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which are found 
by the traveller as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he be- 
holds the delightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. Eight hundred 
metres higher, (two thousand six hundred feet,) the coldness of 
the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks ; and pines 
alone cover the rock, whose summits enter the zone of eternal snow. 
Thus in a few hours the naturalist, in this miraculous country, ascends 
the whole scale of vegetation, from the heliconiaand the banana-plant, 
whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the 
stunted parachyma of the resinous trees." 



RULES AND SUGGESTIONS IN FARMING. 203 

draining, the admixture of earthy materials, and the aher- 
nation of crops. 

26. Stable and fold-yard dung is most profitably applied 
in an unfermented, or partially fermented state, and to 
hoed and autumn-ripening crops. Fermentation dimin- 
ishes the fertilizing properties of manure. If this ferment- 
ation takes place in the soil, the gases, the volatile por- 
tion which first escapes from the putrefying mass, are 
retained in the mould, and serve to feed the crop. If 
fermentation takes place in the yard, or upon the surface, 
the gases are wasted, and the dung undergoes further 
loss from the rains which ordinarily leach it. Long ma- 
nure should be spread broadcast, and well buried by the 
plough. 

27. Short manure, or that which has undergone fer- 
mentation, is most beneficial when harrowed in, upon 
arable lands, or spread upon the surface of grass grounds. 

28. Old meadows may be kept in a productive state, 
in ordinary cases, by a triennial top-dressing with manure 
or compost ; or may be renovated, and restored to a pro- 
ductive state, by the modes recommended in the essay 
which follows, Chapter XXI. 

29. Composts are economical, when made to absorb 
fertilizing liquids which would otherwise be wasted — or 
to decompose inert vegetable matter, as peat-earth, &c. 

30. Lime, gypsum, marl, and ashes are powerful aux- 
iliaries, when applied to proper soils, or suitable crops. 
Observation and experience will be the best guides in their 
application. They should all be appUed to the surface, 
or but superficially covered. 

31. All vegetable and animal matters constitute the 
food of plants, when they are rendered soluble, or capable 
of being dissolved in the water of the soil. 

32. Bone-dust, horn-shavings, poudrette, woollen rags, 
urine, and animal carbon, or burnt bones, are concentrated 
manures, and should be used sparingly and with great 
care, upon or near the surface of the soil. Pigeons' and 
hens' dung partake much of the character of the prece- 
ding, and require precaution in their use. We think the 
best mode of applying the two first named, is to mix ashes 



204 ON THE IMPROVEMENT 

with them, or long manure, just before they are put upon 
the soil, whereby they are brought speedily into a state 
of fermentation and decomposition. 

33. The best guards against drought, are keeping the 
soil deep, rich, clean, and mellow on the surface. 

34. The more cattle that are well kept upon a farm, 
the more manure ; the more manure there is applied, the 
greater the product and the profit, and the greater the 
means of sustaining an increased stock of animals upon it. 
All of these advantages are increased when root crops are 
made to enter largely into the system of culture. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 

Although the alternation of grass and grain crops, in 
connexion with the rearing of cattle, is deemed most prof- 
itable, on soils and in situations which will admit of this 
kind of husbandry, yet there are many situations in which 
this alternate change cannot be carried into effect with- 
out manifest prejudice to the interests of the cultivator. 
There are some soils so natural to grass, as to yield an 
nndiminished product for many years, almost without la- 
bor or expense. There are others, upon the banks of 
streams, which periodically overflow, which it is prudent 
to keep in grass, lest the soil should be worn away by 
the rapid flow of waters. Besides, fertility is kept up 
'Upon these last, by the annual deposit of enriching materi- 
als. Others, again, are too precipitous, or too strong, to 
admit of arable culture. Nor should we conceal the fact, 
that it is still a controverted point, whether rich, stiff clays 
are not most profitable, when permanently appropriated to 
jgrass. Whatever causes prevail, the fact is indisputable, 
that a considerable portion of our lands is, and will con- 
tinue to remain, in meadow and pasture. It is with the 
view to aid the farmer in correcting the defects which 
jnay exist in such grounds, and in improving and keeping 



OF GRASS LANDS. 205 

them in condition, that we ofier the following suggestions. 
And, first, 

§ 1 . Of Pastures. 

The evils that are experienced in pasture grounds, are, 
the gradual disappearance of the best grasses ; the growth 
of mosses and w^eeds in their stead ; and the prevalence 
of coarse herbage, which cattle reject, in situations where 
there exists a superabundance of moisture. Wherever 
there are stagnant waters, as upon flat surfaces that abound 
in springs, or which have a superficial soil upon a tena- 
cious subsoil, the herbage is not only mainly rejected by 
the stock, but the pasture is unhealthy, particularly to 
sheep ; but it is remarked, that if the water is in continued 
motion, as is generally the case upon the declivities of 
hills and mountains, ill consequences do not so often re- 
sult. 

To remedy the evils we have enumerated, and to im- 
prove the value of pasture grounds, one or more of the 
following expedients may be resorted to, viz., sowing and 
harrowing in grass-seeds, scarifying, bushing, draining, 
manuring, top-dressing with marl, lime, or ashes. 

Grass-seed may be sown either in September or April, 
followed by the harrow, and, if practicable, by the roller. 
The harrow partially extirpates the mosses, breaks and 
pulverizes the surface, and buries the seeds ; and the roller 
presses the earth to the seeds, and smooths the surface. 
The bush harrow is to be preferred. This may be con- 
structed by interweaving some strong, but pliant branches 
of trees through the open squares of a heavy harrow, which 
thus forms an efficient brush, and when drawn over the 
groimd performs its duty perfectly during a short distance ; 
but the branches, being pressed close, and worn by the 
motion, soon become so flat as not to have the effect of 
spreading the earth thrown upon the surface by earth- 
worms, ground-mice, or ants. It is therefore recom- 
mended, in ' British Husbandry,' as a better mode, to fix 
the branches upright in a frame, placed in the front part 
of the carriage of the roller ; by which means they can 
be so placed as to sweep the ground effectually, and when 
18 XV. 



206 ON THE IMPROVEMENT 

worn, can be moved a little lower down, so as to contin- 
ue the work with regularity. This operation also com- 
pletely breaks and scatters the manure dropped on the 
field by the stock, and particularly incorporates it with 
the surface-mould. 

Scarifying is cutting the sod and loosening the surface. 
Concklin's press-harrow (fig. 34) is a suitable implement 
for this purpose. We also subjoin the drawing of an 
implement constructed for this purpose, which we take 
from ' British Husbandry,' calculated to be drawn by a one 
or two-horse team. 

Fig. 40. 




This implement is intended to cut the sod perpendicu- 
larly so far down as to sever the roots of the grass, which 
occasions it to throw out fresh roots. It slices the sod, 
without tearing it, and should be constructed with a num- 
ber of very sharp coulters, fixed into a cross-beam at such 
distances as may be thought advisable, from six inches to 
a foot, and of a width according to the strength intended 
to be employed in drawing it. The blades should be 
occasionally whetted to preserve their edge, and the im- 
plement should be used when the ground is in a moderate 
state of moisture, and the grass short. If the land is 
poor, or moss-bound, it may be passed crosswise also. 
It is best adapted to moist clays, which do not contain 
stones or gravel. It is advantageously used to precede 
the sowing of grass-seeds. The foot- wheel is to regulate 
the depth of the work. 

Draining improves the quality of the herbage, and 
marhng, liming, or ashing increases the quantity. It is 
remarked, that animal dung, when dropped on coarse 



OF GRASS LANDS. 207 

pastures, produces little or no benefit ; but when calcare- 
ous matters have been laid upon the surface, the finer 
grasses soon take possession of it. 

Bushing, that is, drawing over the ground tops or heavy 
branches of trees, tends to extirpate moss, loosens the 
surface to atmospheric influence, and covers grass-seeds 
which may be sown previous to the operation. 

Manures are seldom applied to pastures, especially with 
us ; but, apphed in the form of compost, as a top-dressing, 
they are decidedly serviceable. Gypsum and spent ashes 
may be apphed whh undoubted benefit in most cases. 
Upland pastures have been greatly improved in Scotland, 
according to Sinclair, by drawing surface-drains diago- 
nally across the face of the hills. The herbage is ren- 
dered more palatable and wholesome, and the waters are 
prevented from accumulating so as to cut gullies and 
chasms in the hill-sides. 

It need hardly be added, that bushes, thistles, and other 
perennial weeds obstruct the growth of grass, and that they 
ought to be carefully extirpated ; and that surface stones 
diminish the herbage in proportion to the extent of surface 
which they occupy. These, then, should be converted 
into walls, one of the most economical fences, if well 
laid, because the most permanent, that can be constructed. 
The weeds that infest pasture grounds are mostly bien- 
nials or perennials. If these are cut two or three times 
in a season, at the surface of the ground, they will die. 
Leaves are as essential to vegetable, as lungs are to ani- 
mal life. Divested of these elaborating organs, the vitali- 
ty of the vegetable is soon destroyed. 

Our pasture grounds are generally left to take care of 
themselves ; but there is no doubt that expense bestowed 
upon their improvement, in some of the modes above 
suggested, would be profitably laid out. Their value 
depends upon the quality and quantity of the herbage 
which they afford. The quality is in a great measure 
determined by the exemption of the soil from stagnant 
waters, the quantity by the richness of the soil, and its 
exemption from moss, bushes, weeds, stones, and other 
surface obstructions ; for if these are eradicated or re- 



208 ON THE IMPROVEMENT 

moved, it is presumed the nutritious grasses will occupy 
their places. 

§2. Of Meadows. 

The crop being here annually carried off, it becomes 
a matter of necessity, if the field is to be kept permanent- 
ly in grass, to apply manure occasionally, if we would 
prevent a diminution of product. It is affirmed, that a 
perfectly thick bottom cannot be maintained on perma- 
nent meadows, in England, unless it is manured every 
second year. Gypsum will effect much here, upon dry 
soils, though there its effects are equivocal ; but gypsum 
alone will not suffice here. The average product upon 
our old grass lands will hardly exceed a ton and a half 
an acre. With a biennial or triennial top-dressing of 
dung or compost, where the sod is in good condition, it 
is beheved the average would be double. 

Meadows are subject to all the evils that are experi- 
enced in pastures, from mosses, wetness, and the dimi- 
nution of the finer grasses, besides the greater exhaustion 
of fertility consequent upon carrying off the annual 
growth ; and the same measures are best adapted to reno- 
vate them. Meadows are generally depastured after the 
hay has been taken off, and the rowen partially grown. 
" After the cattle have been removed," says an Enghsh 
writer, " the land is bush-harrowed and rolled.''^ It has 
been stated, though some question the fairness of the ex- 
periment, that the operation of heavy rolling has been 
found to add six or seven hundred weight of hay per acre 
to the produce of the crop.* 

The effect of pasturing meadows in the spring, upon 
the coming grass crop, has been a matter upon which 
farmers have differed — though all agree that heavy cattle 
should not be kept on so late in autumn, or put on so 
early in spring, as to injure the sole of the sod, by poach- 
ing it when in a wet state. Mr. Sinclair has stated, that 
a given space of the same quality of grass having been 
cut towards the end of March, and another space of 
equal size left uncut until the last week in April, the pro- 

* Derbyshire Report, vol. ii. p. 88. 



OF GRASS LANDS. 209 

duce of each having afterwards been taken at three dif- 
ferent cuttings, that of the space last cut exceeded the 
former in the proportion of three to two ; and in one in- 
stance, during a dry summer, the last-cropped space ex- 
ceeded the other as nearly two to one.* It is generally 
conceded, that it is better to feed off rowen, than to cut 
it as a second crop. 

But when grass grounds can be alternated with arable 
crops, and where they are not periodically overflowed, or 
triennially dressed with compost or manure, we are de- 
cidedly of opinion that they should be subjected to the 
alternating system. A field well laid down in seeds, will 
give more grass the two first seasons, or in the three sea- 
sons following, than it will in the four seasons following 
these, unless it is overflowed, manured, or top-dressed. 
Besides, the grass ley, if turned under, greatly enriches the 
soil for a tillage crop ; — which, by its ameliorating tenden- 
cy, in pulverizing, opening it to atmospheric influence, 
and exposing a new surface, fits the soil again for the re- 
turn of the grasses. But the mere alternation of crops 
tends to preserve the fertihty of the soil. 

A great objection to the alternating system on clay 
grounds is, that it is difficult to make the grass-seeds take, 
the spring and autumn being generally too wet to obtain 
so complete a pulverization of the soil as will fit it for the 
reception of grass-seeds, — and of course, if sown then, 
they do not germinate and grow. Judge Van Bergen, of 
Greene County, New York, has adopted a practice which 
obviates these objections. He sows his grass-seeds with 
buckwheat, at midsummer, when the ground can be well 
worked. We have seen his fields, a stiff clay, of one, 
two, and three years' seeding, as well set with grass as 
we have seen on the most favored soils ; and, compared 
with adjoining meadows which had not been broken up, 
the crop was at least double. 

Where old grass-grounds are to be broken up, other 
than for a summer fallow, the first ploughing should be in 
autumn, in order that the vegetable matters of the sod may 

* Woburn Grasses, p. 389. 

18* 



210 ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 

undergo a partial decomposition in time to meet the wants 
of the spring crop, and that the soil may be exposed to 
the ameliorating influence of the winter frosts. 

Paring and burning, upon clay soils, would be of 
manifest advantage, not only in converting the sod speedi- 
ly into soluble matters, but in improving the condition of 
the soil itself. We long entertained a prejudice against 
this mode of improvement, on the ground that it de- 
stroyed much of the food of plants ; but we have been 
induced, in a measure, to change our opinion, from a 
conviction, that the food of plants is not annihilated, but 
rather concentrated, changed in its form, and rendered 
more available to the crop. This is seen in burning new 
fallows. Paring and burning produce a further benefit 
by destroying most of the seeds and roots of noxious or 
useless plants. 

" The objections to the division of a farm," says Sir 
John Sinclair, "one half into permanent grass, and the 
other half into permanent tillage, are not to be surmount- 
ed. The arable is deteriorated by the abstraction of 
the manure it produced, if applied to enrich the grass ; 
while the greater part of the manure thus employed is 
wasted ; for spreading putrescent substances upon the 
surface of a field, is to manure, not the soil, but the at- 
mosphere ; and is justly condemned as the most injurious 
plan that can be devised in an arable district. The mis- 
erable crops of corn produced where this system prevails 
sufficiently prove its mischievous consequences. So in- 
jurious is this mode of management, that, in the opinion 
of the most intelligent farmers, the landlord loses one 
fourth of the rent he might otherwise have got, from every 
acre thus debarred from cultivation, while the public 
loses 3j bushels of grain for every stone (14 lbs.) of 
beef or mutton thereby obtained." 

The complaint of the inferiority of the new over the 
old pasture herbage, originates, says Sinclair, either from 
the improper choice of seeds, or from giving them in too 
small quantities ; and he quotes the example of an emi- 
nent farmer, upon a clay farm, who stocked heavy with 
grass-seeds, and who always secured a thick coat of her- 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 211 

bage the first year, which differed from old pasture only 
in being more luxuriant. There can be but Httle doubt, 
that grasses will grow more luxuriantly in a soil which has 
been recently meliorated by the plough and harrow, than 
in one which has remained undisturbed for years. The 
great difficulty is in getting the ground into proper condition 
to receive the seeds, and in getting them to begin to grow. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

ON THE CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

On the judicious selection and proper cultivation of 
grasses, materially depend the profits of the farmer. 
These constitute, directly, the principal food of his farm- 
stock ; and, indirectly, the food of his crops. If his 
grasses are abundant and nutritious, a greater number of 
domestic animals may be maintained, and the greater will 
be the returns they will make to the soil, in manure. A 
well-set sward is far more enriching to the soil, because 
it contains much more organic or vegetable matter, the 
food of plants, when ploughed under, than one that is thin 
and meager. A judicious selection comprises those kinds 
which are naturally best adapted to the soil. A proper 
cultivation consists in keeping them free from stagnant 
water, noxious weeds, and, if to remain long in meadow, 
in giving them a triennial top-dressing of manure or com- 
post. One acre of good grass will cut three tons of hay, 
or keep a cow, or, if in lucerne, will soil half a dozen 
cows five months in a year. Four acres of lean, poor 
grass will cut little more, if any, than three tons of hay, 
and will barely suffice to keep a cow. There is as much 
difference between good and bad grass lands, in regard to 
profit, as there is between a good and a bad field of corn 
or wheat. 

The common practice in this branch of husbandry has 
hitherto been wretchedly bad. Generally, and until late- 
ly, we have either altogether omitted to sow grass-seeds, 



212 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

or have sown them so sparingly, or of so few kinds, that 
we have in a great measure lost much of the profit which 
they are calculated to afford. Timothy and red clover 
have been almost the only seeds sown ; and unless the 
soil has been prolific in indigenous kinds, our pastures 
have been thin, and our meadows light. There is one 
fact in regard to grasses which is not sufficiently known 
and appreciated. Different species subsist upon different 
specific properties of the soil, and draw their food from 
different strata, the fibrous-rooted gathering sustenance 
from the upper, and the tap-rooted from the lower stra- 
tum. And it has been found, that although a superficial 
square foot of turf will only supj)ort a given number of 
plants of one species, it will nevertheless support double 
or treble that number of plants comprising several spe- 
cies. 

We mean, by cultivated grasses, those of which the 
seeds are sown by the husbandman, whether indigenous, 
or natural to the soil, or exotic. And in discussing the 
subject, we shall consider them under two heads, and 
shall draw liberally for facts and illustrations from Lou- 
don and other approved agricultural writers. The divis- 
ions we propose are, — 

1. Herbage plants, or those particularly fitted for al- 
ternate husbandry. 

2. Cultivated grasses, or those best adapted for mead- 
ow and pasture. 

§ 1 . Herbage Plants. 

Under this head, Loudon has embraced the clovers, 
lucerne, sainfoin, birdsfoot trefoil, parsley, burnet, rib- 
wort, plantain, broom, wall-flower, yarrow, &c. The 
six last are never cultivated among us as herbage or field 
plants ; the sainfoin, which is peculiarly adapted to 
chalk soils, has never been successfully cultivated among 
us, and the birdsfoot trefoil but partially. We shall 
therefore confine our remarks, in this department, to the 
clovers and lucerne. 

The cultivation of clovers and lucerne exclusively for 
five stock, is comparatively a modern improvement in 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 213 

husbandry. These plants were not introduced into 
British husbandry until the sixteenth century. Their 
introduction among us, on any thing hke a general scale, 
was far more recent. Indeed, lucerne has hardly yet ob- 
tained a footing among us ; and a great many of our far- 
mers are yet strangers to the great advantages which the 
cultivation of the clovers imparts to farming operations. 

In Flanders, where husbandry underwent its earliest 
improvements after the feudal age, and where it is found 
now most to excel, the cultivation of clovers is deemed 
indispensable to profitable farming. It forms a part of 
the course in every system of rotation upon all soils that 
will grow it. Upon their cultivation, says Radchffe, 
hinges apparently the whole of the farmer's prosperity. 
" Without clover, no man in Flanders would pretend to 
call himself a farmer." Clover is used there as it should 
be used here — both to feed the animal and to enrich the 
soil. In Great Britain, clovers are considered alike in- 
dispensable to good farming, particularly upon sandy and 
other light lands. Their general introduction into Amer- 
ican husbandry promises higher advantages than have 
been derived from them in Europe, inasmuch as gypsum, 
which exerts a magic influence in their growth, produces 
a more uniformly beneficial effect in the United States 
than it does in Europe, excepting perhaps in the interior 
of Germany. Those districts in our country in which 
clover and plaster were first introduced, as some of the 
counties in the valley of the Hudson, and on the eastern 
border of Pennsylvania, have unquestionably made the 
most rapid strides in agricultural improvement, and are 
now confessedly, and by far, the best-cultivated districts 
of our country. Those who have followed their exam- 
ple, in whatever part of the country they have been loca- 
ted, are reahzing a rich reward for their intelligence and 
enterprise. Several counties might be named, which 
have doubled their agricultural products, and the profits 
of their agricultural labor, since the introduction of clo- 
vers and gypsum. No thorough-going farmer, we believe, 
who has given them a fair experiment, has voluntarily 
given them up. 



214 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

The species of clover in cultivation are — 

1. The common red clover, {Trifolium pratense,) 
a biennial, and sometimes, if not permitted to seed, a tri- 
ennial, known from the other species by its broad leaves, 
luxuriant growth, and reddish purple flowers. 

2. The white, or creeping, or Dutch clover, (T. re- 
penSj) is a perennial plant, known by its creeping stems 
and white flowers ; and springing up, it would seem, al- 
most spontaneously, in most of our pastures and meadows. 

3. The yellow clover, hop-trefoil, or shamrock clo- 
ver, (T. procumbens,) a biennial, known by its procum- 
bent shoots, yellow flowers, and black seeds. This 
species is not cultivated among us, though it seems to 
abound in the northern and middle States. 

4. The cow-grass, meadow clover, or marl-grass, (T. 
ynedium of Linnseus, and resembling, says Beck, the T. 
Pennsylvanicum of Wild,) is a perennial, resembling the 
red clover, but of a paler hue, dwarfer habit, with pale red 
or whitish flowers, and long roots, very sweet to the 
taste. Whether what we term Southern Clover is the 
T. medium^ or T. Pennsylvanicum^ or a variety of the 
T. pratense, we shall leave it to botanists to settle, bare- 
ly remarking, that its time of flowering is usually ten to 
fourteen days earlier than that of the northern red clover. 

5. Scarlet clover, (T. incarnatum.)) an annual, a na- 
tive of Italy, but little known or cultivated either in the 
United States or Great Britain. We have sown it 
twice on a limited scale ; and although it promised a 
handsome product, it did not attain its growth in time for 
a forage crop, or to mature its seeds. 

Of the species we have named, the pratense, repens, 
and medium, if the latter be a distinct species, are the 
only ones which are, or are likely to be, cultivated among 
us. The first yields the heaviest burden, but is coarser, 
and later in maturing than the last named ; and the lat- 
ter has consequently one manifest advantage over the 
former, — it will give two crops in a season, one to the 
scythe, and one for seed. It is to be remarked, that the 
first growth or crop of clover seldom produces much seed, 
on account of the heat of our mid-summer. If the first 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 215 

crop of the large clover is not cut until it is in full blossom, 
the season hardly suffices for a second crop to mature its 
seed. The southern clover may be fed till the 20th June, 
or the first crop taken by the 25th or 28th, and the sec- 
ond or seed crop will come to perfect maturity, in ordi- 
nary seasons, before the autumnal frosts. The white 
clover is not sown to the extent it deserves to be. Being 
a perennial plant, and grateful to all kinds of farm-stock, 
its continuance in meadow and pasture grounds renders 
it highly valuable, both for hay and grazing. It does not 
seem to intrude upon the taller grasses, but will occupy 
every vacant space, and add essentially to the value of 
the crop. It is universally valued and admired ; then 
why not sow it more generally } 

The soil best adapted to the growth of red clover, ( T. 
pratense and T. medium^) to which we shall hereafter con- 
fine our remarks, is a deep, sandy loam, or other soils 
which will admit freely the long tap-roots to extend down- 
wards ; but they will grow in any soil, provided it be dry. 
Calcareous soils are also peculiarly congenial to clover ; 
and the application of gypsum upon soils sensitive to its 
influence, will call into action the seeds, which before 
would seem to have lain dormant, for want of this stimu- 
lus, or specific food. 

The usual time of sowing clover-seed is in the spring, 
if with a spring crop, before the last harrowing ; or upon 
winter grain in March or April, when the field will bear 
cattle without poaching the ground, followed by a light 
harrow or roller. Let no one fear to injure his grain by 
harrowing it in the spring. The harrow or roller efi:ects 
a material benefit, by breaking the crust which is gener- 
ally perceptible on the appearance of dry weather, in the 
spring, closing the innumerable cracks which are caused 
by the contraction of the soil, and in pressing down, and 
even covering the crowns of the plants. Harrowing win- 
ter grain in the spring has long been a general practice in 
tlie north of Germany, and the practice would not have 
been persisted in had it not been found beneficial. Clo- 
ver-seeds are sometimes sown with the autumn crop, in 
September or October ; though this practice is not to be 



216 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

approved of, as the plants do not ordinarily obtain suffi- 
cient strength to withstand the severity of our northern 
winters. A better practice would be, we think, to sow 
with buckwheat in July. The plants would then have 
time to estabhsh themselves well in the soil. We, how- 
ever, think that spring sowing is to be preferred in the 
northern States. 

The quantity of seed to be sown on an acre, will de- 
pend upon the quality of the soil, the purpose to which 
the clover is to be apphed, and the quantity of other grass- 
seeds sown with it. As much of the seed sown upon 
stiff clays, or upon grounds not well pulverized, will not 
vegetate, for want of a continued supply of moisture, al- 
lowance should be made for the failure ; yet, upon these, 
and wet grounds, the main dependance, after the first 
year, is upon timothy or other grasses sown with the clo- 
ver. If the ground is intended for pasture, the varieties 
of seeds should be as extensive as possible, as the object 
is to obtain an abundance of food at all seasons, and to 
render the pasture perennial. The usual quantity of seed 
sown on the acre in the United States, is about ten 
pounds ; in Great Britain it is often increased to fourteen 
pounds ; while in Flanders six pounds is the medium 
quantity, though in the latter country the land is always 
in the best condition to receive it. The more plants that 
can be made to grow, the finer will be the herbage, and 
the greater the amount of vegetable matter afl:brded by 
the ley to the crop which is to follow. 

The after-culture of clover consists in freeing the sur- 
face of stones and sticks, the soil from docks and thistles, 
and in applying an annual top-dressing of gypsum, or, 
when this is inoperative, of hme or ashes. The top- 
dressing is best applied in the spring, before the clover 
begins to grow. Upon lands annually dressed with plas- 
ter, a bushel is considered a sufficient dressing for an 
acre, though greater quantities are often apphed with ad- 
vantage. 

The making clover into hay is a process different from 
that of making hay from natural grasses. All herbage 
plants abound most in nutriment, and should be cut be- 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 217 

fore the seeds are formed, and indeed before fully in blos- 
som, that the full juice and nourishment of the plant may 
be retained in the hay. A crop of clover, when cut in 
the early part of the season, may be ten per cent, lighter 
than when it is fully ripe ; but the loss is amply counter- 
balanced, by obtaining an earlier, a more valuable, and 
more nutritious article ; while the next crop will be pro- 
portionably more heavy. The hay from old herbage 
will carry on stock, but it is only hay from young herbage 
that will fatten them. When the stems of clover become 
hard and sapless, by being allowed to bring their seeds 
towards maturity, they are of little more value as proven- 
der than an equal quantity of the finer sort of straw. 

The mode of making clover hay, as practised by the 
best farmers, is as follows : The clover is cut close td 
the ground, in as uniform and perfect a manner as it is 
possible to accomplish, by the scythe kept constantly 
sharp. That part of the stem left by the scythe is not 
only lost, but the after-growth is neither so vigorous nor 
so weighty as when the first cutting is taken as low as 
possible. 

As soon as the grass is partially wilted, let the swath 
be gently turned over, but not spread or scattered. This 
may be done with forks or rakes. If the weather is fair, 
and the clover cut in the morning, the swaths may be 
turned after dinner ; and if mown after noon they may 
be turned before evening ; at which time those turned 
after dinner may be put into grasscocks. This last op- 
eration should be performed with care, and in this man- 
ner : — Three swaths are appropriated to a row of cocks. 
The laborer gathers a good forkfull, and deposits it on 
the centre swath, if the ground is dry, if not, in one of 
the intervals, putting it down gently, so that the cock may 
present a small base ; he then continues to gather and 
deposit in the same way until the cock is brought to a 
point, at the height of four to five feet, according to the 
dryness of the clover, — the dryer this is, the higher the 
cock may be made. When completed, the grasscock 
is two to three feet broad at the ground, tapering to the 
apex, and the projecting ends of the herbage drooping, so 
19 XV. 



218 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

as to carry off the rain which may fall. The points to 
be regarded are, to cock before the leaves begin to crum- 
ble, not to suffer the dew to fall upon the dried surface 
of the swath, and to build the cocks so as completely to 
shed rain, should the weather be bad. These grasscocks 
may stand to advantage 36 or 48 hours, without any pre- 
judice, and should not be opened until there is a fair pros- 
pect of obtaining a few hours of good weather to com- 
plete the curing process. When this is the case, open 
the cocks as soon as the dew is off, spread them partially, 
from four to six inches thick. If the day is good, the 
spread clover may be turned over between twelve and 
two, and in an hour or two afterwards be gathered for the 
barn. By this process of curing, the leaves are all pre- 
served, injury from dew and rain is in a great measure 
avoided, the stalks are better dried, and the appearance 
and value of the forage are retained in their highest perfec- 
tion. If rain is apprehended, after the grasscocks have 
stood a night, these may be doubled by putting one upon 
the top of another, and dressing with a rake. An intense 
sun is almost as prejudicial to clover as rain ; and there- 
fore it should not be shaken out, spread, or exposed often- 
er than is necessary for its preservation. The more the 
swath is kept unbroken, the more green and fragrant will 
be the hay. 

The advantage of curing clover in the cock is this, 
that when cured by being spread, the leaves and blos- 
soms are dry long before the stems are cured, or suffi- 
ciently dry ; so that either the stems must be housed be- 
fore they are properly cured, or, if made sufficiently dry 
by long exposure to the sun, the leaves and blossoms 
become too dry, crumble, and are lost. If in cock, all 
parts of the plant dry alike, the moisture in the mass is 
equahsed, and when gathered to the barn, there will 
scarcely be a leaf lost, while the stalks will be amply 
cured. A slight fermentation often takes place in the 
cocks, which, instead of doing any injury, is a benefit, as 
it prevents the hay from afterwards heating in the mow 
or stack. It is a good practice to sprinkle salt upon 
clover hay, when deposited in the barn, especially upon 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 219 

the first loads brought in, not so much with the view of 
preserving the hay, as of seasoning it, and rendering it 
more palatable to the cattle. 

The secret of making good hay, says Low, is to pre- 
pare it as quickly as possible, and with as little exposure 
to the weather, and as little waste of the natural juices, as 
circumstances will allow. When we are enabled to do this 
the hay will be sweet, fragrant, and of a greenish color. 

The produce of clover, on the best soils, is from two 
to three tons per acre. The difference in quality, resulting 
from the mode of curing, is apparent from this fact, that 
well-cured clover, according to Loudon, is generally 
twenty per cent, higher in the London market than mead- 
ow hay, or clover and rye-grass mixed. 

As we have before remarked, clover will not perfect 
its seed in the early part of the season ; therefore it is 
necessary to take off the first growth, either as a hay 
crop, or by feeding it off, till June, and to depend for 
the seed upon those heads that are produced in autumn. 
The product in seed varies from two to five bushels an 
acre. When ripe, the heads are gathered, with or with- 
out the stems, threshed, and the seed separated from the 
chaflf in a clover-seed mill. The seed forms an article 
of substantial profit with many farmers, and amounts often 
to more than the rest of the crop. Assuming as an aver- 
age four bushels to the acre, and estimating it to be worth 
ten dollars a bushel, the acreable value would be forty 
dollars. The expense of threshing and cleaning is com- 
paratively trifling. The stems of the seed crop, if 
cured in the manner directed for clover hay, are of more 
value as fodder than straw, and constitute excellent litter 
for the stables and yards. 

When we take into consideration the value of the first 
crop for forage, and of the second crop for seed and lit- 
ter ; and consider, that while clover is one of the least 
exhausting crops to the soil, it returns more to it than 
almost any other crop, and benefits it mechanically by 
pulverizing and dividing it, by its tap-roots ; — if we take 
these several matters into consideration, together with the 
facts, that clover is admirably adapted to light, sandy 



220 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

lands, to the alternate system of husbandry, and that its 
growth is wonderfully accelerated by gypsum — we shall 
not be surprised at the saying of the Flemings, that 
'' without clover, no man in Flanders would pretend to call 
himself a farmer ;" nor shall we be surprised at the uniform 
success which has attended its culture in the United States. 

Lucerne — JWedicago sativa^ L. 

Lucerne is a deep-rooted perennial plant, sending up 
numerous small and clover-like shoots, with blue or vio- 
let spikes of flowers. It is a native of the south of Eu- 
rope, is extensively cultivated in the south of Spain, Italy, 
France, Persia, and Lima, in the two latter being cut 
all the year round, — and is partially cultivated in Great 
Britain and the United States. With us it is often called 
French clover, and is found to be as hardy as red clover. 
It was extensively cultivated by the Romans, and com- 
mended by Columella, as the choicest of all fodder. 
Three quarters of an acre of it, he thought abundantly suf- 
ficient to feed three horses during the whole year. 

The soil for lucerne must be dry, friable, inclining to 
sand, and with a subsoil not inferior to the surface. Un- 
less the subsoil be good, deep, and dry, it is in vain to 
attempt to cultivate lucerne. A friable, deep, sandy 
loam is excellent for it. No land is too rich for it. 

The preparation of the soil consists in deep ploughing 
and minute pulverization. Loudon recommends trenching 
for it. But a good preparation is a potato crop, heavily 
dressed with long manure, the ground ploughed very deep, 
and the manure buried at the bottom of the furrow, and 
the crop kept perfectly free from weeds. 

The season most proper for sowing in the northern and 
eastern States is about the 1st to the 15th of May, when 
the ground has become sufficiently warmed to promote 
quick germination. 

The manner of sowing lucerne is either broadcast or 
in drills, and either with or without an accompanying crop. 
Broadcast, with a very thin cast of winter rye, is most 
generally preferred in the United States ; though drills, 
by enabling the cultivator to keep out grasses and weeds, 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 221 

promise the greatest permanency to the crop. A gen- 
tleman, who has sown in drills, three feet apart, and cul- 
tivated alternate rows of mangel wurtzel with the lucerne, 
speaks in high commendation of the practice. Arthur 
Young recommends drilhng at nine inches. 

The quantity of seed, when the broadcast method is 
adopted, is from fifteen to twenty pounds ; in the United 
States, sixteen pounds is the usual quantity, — and when 
drilled, eight to twelve pounds suffices. The ground 
should be perfectly pulverized, the seed put in with a fine 
harrow, and the operation of sowing finished with the roller. 

The after culture of lucerne^ sown broadcast, consists 
in harrowing, in the spring, to destroy grass and weeds ; 
rolling, after harrowing, to smooth the soil for the scythe ; 
and such occasional top-dressings with gypsum, ashes, or 
rotted manure, as the plants may require, or the conve- 
nience of the farm best afford. The harrowing may com- 
mence the second year, and the weeds collected should 
always be carefully removed. In succeeding years, two 
harro wings may be applied, one in spring and the other in 
the latter part of the summer. If in drills the crop must 
be kept clean by the hoe, cultivator, &c. Liquid manure 
from the cattle-yard is an excellent manure for this crop. 

The taking of lucerne, by mowing, for soiling or hay, 
or by tethering, hurdling, or pasturing, may be consid- 
ered the same as for clover. Lucerne frequently attains 
a sufficient growth for the scythe from the 1 0th to the 
20th May ; and in soils that are favorable for its culture, 
it will be in a state of readiness for cutting a second time 
in twenty or twenty-five days, being capable of undergo- 
ing the same operation, at nearly similar intervals of time, 
during the whole of the summer season. In the United 
States, in a good soil, it may be cut, for soiling, four, 
and sometimes five times in the season. 

The application of lucerne is, with us, generally for the 
purpose of soiling, with the exception sometimes of the 
last cutting. It is advantageously fed in its green state to 
horses, cattle, and hogs ; but as a dry fodder, it is also 
capable of affording much sustenance, and as an early 
food for ewes and lambs, may be of great value in par- 
19* 



222 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

ticular cases. All agree in extolling it as food for cows, 
whether in a green or dried state ; and it is said to be 
much superior to clover, both in increasing the milk and 
butter, and in improving their flavor. In its green state, 
care is necessary not to feed too much at a time, especially 
when moist, as cattle may become hoven or blown with 
it. It is a good precaution to cut it the day before it is 
used, and to let it wilt in the swath. When made into 
hay, lucerne should never be spread from the swath, but 
managed as directed for clover. It may be housed before 
perfectly dry, if it is alternated in the mow with layers 
of straw, which imbibe the superabundant juices, and 
thereby become grateful and nutritious to the farm-stock, 
when fed with the lucerne. 

Soiling is a term applied to the practice of cutting her- 
bage crops green, for feeding or fattening live stock. On 
all farms under correct management, a part of this crop is 
cut green for the working horses, often for milch cows, even 
when at pasture ; and in some instances, both for growing 
and fattening cattle. On small farms, this crop is of immense 
advantage, as affording a ready substitute for pasture. 

The produce of lucerne, cut three times in a season, 
has been stated from three to five, and even eight tons 
per acre. In soiling, one acre is sufficient for five or six 
cows during the soihng season.* 

* In the first volume of the Transactions of the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, we find a detailed state- 
ment of a series of experiments made by the late Chancellor Livings- 
ton, in 1791 to 1794, in cultivating lucerne, most of which proved 
unsuccessful. He sowed it mixed with clover-seeds, and by itself, on 
a variety of soils, at different seasons, and with oats, wheat, buck- 
wheat, barley, and turnips. These experiments warrant the following 
conclusions : — That the seeds should be sown on a dry, rich, deep soil, 
in May, when the earth is sufficiently warm to excite a quick germina- 
tion and growth ; that from 16 to 20 lbs. of seed should be sown on 
an acre, and the ground harrowed and rolled ; that " it is full as hardy 
as clover," and " better braves the biting frosts of spring, and keen 
autumnal blasts, than clover, or any cultivated grass of this climate ;" 
and that the profits of an acre may be estimated from $20 to $30 per 
annum. The following is Chancellor Livingston's account of the ex- 
pense and produce of the third year — this experiment being made on 
the fourth of an acre. 

" 1st April — manured with ten loads of black earth from a swamp, 
or at the rate of 40 loads to the acre. 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 223 

One of our farmers has kept eight cattle (two oxen 
and six cows) upon an acre of lucerne, during the season, 
with a range of three or four acres of pasture. Say, how- 
ever, the produce is equal to a full crop of red clover in 
value, then, yearly for nine or ten years, (its ordinary 
duration in a productive state,) at an annual expense of 
harrowing and rolling, and a triennial expense of top-dres- 
sing, it will be of sufficient value to induce farmers, who 
have suitable soils, to lay down a few acres of this crop 
near their homesteads. 

To save seed, the lucerne may be treated precisely as 
red clover, i. e., obtained from the second cutting, or even 
the third, the crop being left to ripen its seed. It is 
easily threshed, the grains being contained in small pods, 
which readily separate under the flail, threshing-machine, 
or clover-mill. 

§ 2. Cultivated Grasses. 

'' The forage, hay, and pasture grasses," says Lou- 
don, *'of which we are now about to treat, are found 

" It was very luxuriant, and cut twice before the 20th June, for 
plough-horses, kept in the stable — being, when they began to cut each 
time, about 16 inches high — the average height, taking the first and 
last cutting, each time, about 20 inches. On the 24th of July, cut 
and made into hay, produced 1000 lbs., or two tons to the acre. On 
the last of August cut a fourth time, produced 600 lbs., or 2400 to the 
acre. The fifth crop is not cut, but is now, the first of October, 20 
inches high, and very promising in its appearance. If we have no 
severe frosts before the middle of this month, it will produce about 
6 cwt. of hay. 

Produce and Expense of Acre JVo. 1. 
40 loads of black earth from an adjoining swamp, at Is. 

per load, . . £2 00 00 

Cutting five crops and making them into hay, at 8s. . 2 00 00 

Tons. Cwt. 
Two first crops, valued at 5 cwt. each, or 2 
Third crop in hay, .... 2 

Fourth crop do. .... 1 4 

Fifth, estimated at .... 1 

6 4 

6 tons 4 cwt. , at 2s. 6d £15 10 00 

Expenses above, 4 00 00 

Profit, £11 10 00 



224 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

clothing the surface in every zone, attaining generally a 
greater height, with less closeness at the roots, in warm 
climates ; and producing a low, close, thick, dark green 
nutritive herbage, in the cooler latitudes. The best grass 
pastures are found in countries that have least cold in 
winter, and no excess of heat in summer, as in Ireland, 
England, Holland, and Denmark. In every zone, where 
there are high mountains, there are certain positions be- 
tween the base and summit, where, from the equilibrium 
of the temperature, turf may be found equal to that in 
marine islands." 

The universal presence of the forage grasses, and the 
rapidity with which all soils become covered with them, 
when left uncultivated, is the obvious reason why their 
selection and systematic culture are of but recent date. 
This branch of culture originated in England, about the 
middle of the seventeenth century, and at first embraced 
only rye-grass, was afterwards extended to cock's-foot, 
timothy, foxtail, &c. The Duke of Bedford made the 
latest and most laborious efforts towards attaining a knowl- 
edge of the comparative value of all the British and some 
foreign grasses worth cultivating. The result is given 
in the Appendix to Sir H. Davy's ^Agricultural Chem- 
istry^ and of which an abstract will be found at the close 
of this essay. 

With respect to the general culture of grasses, though 
no department of agriculture is more simple in the execu- 
tion, yet, from the nature of grasses, considerable judge- 
ment is required in the design. Though grasses abound 
in every soil and situation, yet all the species do not 
abound in every soil and situation indifferently. On the 
contrary, no class of perfect plants are so absolute and 
unalterable in their choice in this respect. The creep- 
ing-rooted and stoloniferous grasses will grow readily on 
moist soils ; but the fibrous-rooted species, and especially 
the more delicate upland grasses, require particular at- 
tention as to the soil in which they are sown ; for in many 
soils they will not come up at all, or die away in a few 
years, and give way to the grasses which would naturally 
spring up in such a soil, when left to a state of nature. 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 225 

Hence in sowing down lands for permanent pasture, it is 
a good method to make choice of those grasses which 
thrive best in adjoining and similarly-circumstanced pas- 
tures for a part of the seed, and to mix with these what 
are considered the very best kinds. 

Although the catalogue of grasses, indigenous and for- 
eign, which are useful for forage, is numerous, yet the 
nmnber cultivated, or propagated artificially, is very 
hmited, and indeed it is but recently, not perhaps half a 
century, that we have been in the habit of sowing grass- 
seeds at all. The practice is however gaining, and it is 
reasonable to believe, that many species will ere long be 
advantageously cultivated, which have hitherto altogether 
escaped the notice of the farmer. 

We shall confine our remarks, at present, to those spe- 
cies which are cultivated, upon a broader or less scale, 
among us. And we begin with that deemed most valua- 
ble as a forage grass, at least in the northern States ; 
viz., 

1. Timothy^ better known in the east as herds-grass, 
and in Europe as meadow cafs-tail, (Phleum pratense.) 
This is the general forage grass of the northern States. 
It finds here a congenial climate, particularly in moun- 
tainous districts, is perfectly hardy, perennial, highly 
nutritious, and gives an abundant product ; and it should 
not escape the notice of the farmer, that it is far more 
rich in nutritious properties, when cut in the seed, than 
when cut in the blossom. It is often sowui alone, but 
more generally with clover ; though the two are not well 
conjoined, for the clover is in condition to be cut two 
weeks before the timothy is in seed. Yet where the 
grounds are intended to be left a considerable time in 
grass, the loss is not so material ; for the clover gradual- 
ly disappears, while the timothy enlarges its volume, and 
fills the ground. Although the crop is less nutritious 
when cut early, the aftermath compensates, in some meas- 
ure, for the deficiency ; for, if suffered to seed, the after- 
growth is comparatively trifling, and the exhaustion to the 
soil is far greater. The maturing of the seeds, of all 
crops, is what most impairs the fertihty of the soil. 



226 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

Another consideration which renders this grass desirable 
is the value of the seed which it affords, and which may- 
be saved without materially deteriorating the hay crop. 
From ten to thirty bushels of seed are taken from an acre 
by many farmers, in the valley of the Mohawk, and con- 
stitute a large item of their farm profits. The seed of 
this grass being small, particular care is requisite in pul- 
verizing the ground for its reception, and, when practica- 
ble, the roller should follow the seeding process. The 
seed may be sown in autumn with winter grain, in the spring 
with a crop, or at midsummer with buckwheat. Upon 
stiff, tenacious clays, the latter practice has been found 
to be advantageous, unless the season prove unusually dry. 
In cutting timothy for seed, the most approved mode 
is to reap the tops, say twelve inches long, with a sickle, 
to the width of a swath or two, and then immediately 
to cut down the stems with a scythe. In this way, all 
foul seeds may be avoided, and a suitable place provided, 
as the cutting progresses, to spread and dry the tops. 

2. Red-top^ the herds-grass of the middle and south- 
ern vStates, [Jlgrostis vulgaris,) is indigenous, perennial, 
and valuable for hay and pasture, on lands adapted to its 
growth, which are reclaimed swamps and other moist 
grounds, and in which it almost every where springs up and 
flourishes spontaneously. This grass and timothy are fit 
for the scythe about the same time, and are therefore very 
suitable kinds to be sown together. Its cultivation is yet 
very limited, though of manifest advantage. The seeds are 
kept for sale in the seed-shops. The white-top ov foul 
meadow is said, by Muhlenburgh, to be a variety of the 
w2. vulgaris. 

3. American Cock''s-foot and Orchard-grass are dif- 
ferent names given to the Dactylis glomerata of botanists. 
This is one of the most abiding grasses we have. It may 
be known by its coarse appearance, both of the leaf and 
seed-spike, its broad leaves, seed-glumes resembling a 
cock's-foot, and also by its whitish-green hue. It is prob- 
ably better adapted than any other grass to sow with clo- 
ver and other seeds for permanent pasture, and for a 
crop of hay, as it is fit to cut with clover, and grows 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 227 

remarkably quick after being cropped by cattle. Five 
or six days' growth in summer suffices to give a good bite. 
Its good properties consist in its early and rapid growth, 
and in its resistance of drought ; but all agree, that to ob- 
tain its greatest value, it should be kept closely cropped. 
Sheep, it is said, will pass over every other grass to 
feed upon it. If suffered to grow long without being 
cropped, it becomes coarse and harsh. Arthur Young 
and Mr. Cook commend it highly, and the latter culti- 
vates it on an extensive scale at Holkham. Colonel Pow- 
ell, of Pennsylvania, after growing it ten years, declares, 
that it produces more pasturage than any cultivated grass 
that he has ever seen in America. On being fed very 
close, it has been found to afford good pasture after re- 
maining five days at rest. It is suitable to all arable soils. 
It abounds in seed, which is easily gathered ; but, on 
account of its peculiar hghtness, (the bushel not w^eigh- 
ing more than twelve or fourteen pounds,) it should be 
spread on a floor and sprinkled whh water a day or two 
before it is sown, that it may become saturated, and 
more easily germinate. Two bushels of seed are sown 
to the acre, when sown alone ; and half this quantity 
when sown whh clover. The orchard-grass should be 
cut early when intended for hay, as it diminishes two sev- 
enths in value, as hay, by being permitted to ripen its 
seeds. When cut early with clover, the after-growth, or 
rowen, is very abundant. 

4. Tall Oat-grass^ (^Jlvena elatior.) Dr. Muhlen- 
burgh, and Mr. Taylor, of Virginia, place this at the 
head of good grasses. " On the continent of Europe," 
says Dickson, " in comparison with common grass, it is 
found to yield in the proportion of twenty to two." Dr. 
Muhlenburgh says, of all others it is the best grass, and 
earliest for green fodder and hay. The Doctor was prob- 
ably not advised of its deficiency in nutritive matter, as 
indicated in the experiments of Sinclair. It possesses 
the advantage of early, late, and quick growth, for which 
the orchard-grass is esteemed, and is well calculated for 
a pasture grass. We have measured it in June, when in 
blossom, (at the time it should be cut for hay,) and found 



228 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

the seed-stems four and a half feet long. The latter- 
math, it will be perceived by the table which is append- 
ed, is nearly equal in weight, and superior in nutritious 
matter, to the seed crop. Sinclair says it thrives best 
on a strong tenacious clay ; and Muhlenburgh prefers for 
it a clover soil. Dickson speaks well of it, and says it 
makes good hay, but is most beneficial when retained in. 
a close state of feeding. The seed falls and wastes un- 
less gathered early, and with care. Sow at the rate of 
six or eight pecks the acre, with grain, in the spring. 

5. Sweet-scented Vernal Grass {Ant ho x ant hum oclo- 
ratum) is a foreign perennial grass, of dwarfish habit, sown 
principally on grounds intended for pastures, for the very 
early feed which it affords, and for its growing quick after 
being cropped. Muhlenburgh says it delights in moist 
soils ; the ' Bath Papers' assure us it does well in clayey 
loams ; and Dickson, that it grows in almost any soil, 
including sands and bogs. It is eaten by oxen, horses, 
and sheep, though not so freely as some other grasses are. 

6. Meadow Foxtail [Jllopecurus pratensis) is also a 
foreign grass, possesses all the advantages of early growth 
with the preceding, and is much more abundant in pro- 
duce and nutriment, but is not so well suited to difl:erent 
soils. It almost invariably constitutes one of the several 
seeds which are sown together by the British farmer, par- 
ticularly when the grounds are intended for pasture. 
''Of all the English grasses," says Dickson, "this ap- 
pears to be the best adapted for cutting twice. It starts 
up very rapidly after mowing or feeding, and produces 
an abundant aftermath." It does best in moist soils, 
whether loams, or clays, or reclaimed swamps. It abides 
nine or ten years. Sheep and horses have a better relish 
for it, according to G. Sinclair, than oxen. It abounds 
in seed, says Middleton, which is easily collected from 
the swath during mowing time. 

The two preceding grasses were probably introduced 
first some years ago, into the neighborhoods of Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, &c., by emigrants, or others ; 
and as they seed earlier than the orchard-grass or tall oat, 
and before they would be likely to be cut for hay, the 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 229 

seeds have probably been scattered, and these grasses 
are now found in those neighborhoods, among the natural 
grasses of the meadows. A great advantage resulting 
from sowing these seeds, as also of the orchard and tall 
meadow-oat, is, that they are disseminated upon the farm, 
and thus tend to augment the natural growth of herbage. 

7. Rye-grass, [Loliwn perenne.) This is exten- 
sively cultivated in Scotland, and in the north of Eng- 
land, and forms the principal seed sown with clover. 
There are several varieties ; some of which are annual, 
and others biennial and perennial. The Itahan rye-grass 
has within a few years attracted notice, as being superior 
to the other kinds. The common kinds have been re- 
peatedly tried in the United States, but generally with 
poor success — our summers being too dry, and our win- 
ters too cold for it. We have also twice tried the Italian 
variety, but the result has induced us to abandon it, as 
unsuited to our climate. To those who wish to try the 
rye-grass, it will be proper to add, on the authority of 
Dickson and others, that it is a good pasture grass, and 
is valuable in rich moist meadows ; that cows and sheep 
eat it freely ; and that Arthur Young considers the orchard- 
grass superior to it. The biennial rye-grass is preferred 
for a first crop with clover, as being of larger growth, 
and better suited to alternate husbandry. The perennial 
is preferred for grounds that are to be left longer in grass, 
as it abides several years. The Italian variety gives the 
largest produce, and, were it hardy enough to withstand 
the cold of our winters, would no doubt become a valua- 
ble acquisition to our husbandry. 

The seed sells in the American shops at three to four 
dollars a bushel. On the whole, we do not recommend 
its culture, except in elevated or humid districts. 

We have enumerated, we believe, all the grasses, that 
have hitherto been cultivated in the United States to any 
considerable extent. There are many other species, in- 
digenous and foreign, which might be worthy of our no- 
tice, and which may yet form valuable accessions in our 
husbandry, whenever they shall be brought into notice, 
cultivated, and their merits determined, in experimental 
20 XV. 



230 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

farming. There are other grasses that spring up sponta- 
neously, and which produce a good turf without labor, as 
the blue-grass of the western States, or flat-stalked mead- 
ow-grass, (Poa compressa^) the smooth-stalked mead- 
ow-grass, {Poa pratensis,) the red meadow-grass, {Poa 
aquatica,) and the rough-stalked meadow-grass ; (Poa 
trivialis ;) also many species of the festuca and agrostis 
genera, particularly the Jl. stricta, of which our quack or 
witch-grass is a variety. 

Upon this last it may be well to remark, that Dr. Rich- 
ardson first brought this grass into notice, as a superior 
forage, well adapted to reclaimed bogs and swamps, par- 
ticularly in mountainous districts, in localities where other 
grasses will not thrive. The pecuhar value of the fiorin 
arises from the concrete sap laid up in its numerous joints; 
and indeed it may be remarked that the straw or stems, 
of all plants, are rich in nutriment in proportion to the 
frequency of their joints, which are peculiarly the deposit 
of nutritious matters. The fiorin sufi:ers less in weight 
and nutriment, by frosts, than any other grass ; and of 
course affords good winter pasture. It is propagated by 
stolens or roots ; the ground being previously drained, 
and ameliorated by one or more crops, for which purpose 
potatoes or other root crops are preferable. The surface 
is made smooth and clean, the strings or roots are then 
strewed over it, and a compost, consisting in part of bog- 
ashes, lime, and loam, spread over, sufficient to prevent 
the roots being blown away. The quack, switch, or witch 
grass, a variety of the fiorin, is highly nutritious, roots 
and all, and, if cultivated for forage, might prove a profit- 
able crop ; but the objection is, it interferes too much 
where it is not wanted, and will stay where it is once in- 
troduced. In pasture grounds, however, it seldom abides 
after the third year. 

We will endeavor to class the grasses of which the 
seeds can be procured in this country, according to the 
best data in our possession, for the uses to which they 
are best adapted, and to indicate the soils on which they 
respectively thrive. But before we do this, we will in- 
troduce Dickson's classification of grasses for different 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 231 

soils in Great Britain, which will show the quantity and 
variety of seeds sown to the acre in that country. 

Clayey Soils. Marl or cow-grass, 5 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; 
crested dog's-tail grass, 10 lbs. ; meadow fescue-grass, one 
bushel ; meadow foxtail grass, one bushel. And when 
the three last cannot be procured, meadow soft-grass, two 
bushels ; meadow cat's-tail, or timothy, 4 lbs. 

Loamy Soils. White clover, 5 lbs. ; crested dog's- 
tail, 10 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; meadow fescue-grass, 
three pecks ; meadow fox-tail, three pecks ; yarrow, tv;^o 
pecks. Or, where the second cannot be had, rye-grass, 
one peck ; and rib-grass, 4 lbs. And in room of the last 
three, meadow soft-grass, half a bushel ; timothy grass, 
4 lbs. ; marl or cow-grass, 5 lbs. 

Sandy Soils. White clover, 7 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; 
burnet, 6 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; yarrow, one bushel. 
Or, instead of the last, rib-grass, 4 lbs. ; rye-grass, 1 peck. 

Chalky Soils. Burnet, 10 lbs. ; trefoil, 5 lbs. ; white 
clover, 5 lbs. ; yarrow, one bushel, or, in its place, rye- 
grass, one bushel. 

Peaty Soils. White clover, 10 lbs. ; crested dog's- 
tail grass, 10 lbs. ; rye-grass, one peck ; meadow fox- 
tail grass, two pecks ; meadow fescue-grass, two pecks ; 
cat's-tail, or timothy grass, one peck. Or in place of the 
second, fourth, and fifth, meadow soft-grass, six pecks ; 
rib-grass, 5 lbs. ; marl or cow-grass, 4 lbs. Our classi- 
fication embraces — 

I. Grasses best suited to arable lands, and designed to 
alternate with grain and roots. 

II. Those best adapted for hay or meadows ; and, 

III. Grasses which are most profitably sown for peren- 
nial pastures. 

I. There are several descriptions of land which are 
much more profitably employed in tillage than in grass, 
particularly those that are dry or light, and which have 
little tendency to produce good herbage. Yet constant 
cropping with grain would soon exhaust them of fertility, 
without an expense for manure which few can afford. 
The system of introducing artificial or sown grasses, after 
two, three, or four years' tillage, is happily calculated to 



232 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

avert the evil, and constitutes one of the late improve- 
ments in farming. " The lands are thereby not only pre- 
vented from being so much exhausted as would otherwise 
be the case, and at the same time rendered fit for the 
growth of particular kinds of grain, without the necessity 
of fallowing ; but a much larger proportion of green and 
other food, than could otherwise he obtained, is provided 
for the support of live stock." The grasses best adapted 
to this purpose, are the red and white clovers, lucerne, 
and the orchard, tall oat, timothy, and rye grasses. Clover 
is the primary dependance on all soils that will grow it, 
and particularly where gypsum can exercise its magic 
powers. As vegetables are said to exhaust the soil in 
proportion to the smallness of their leaves, (the larger and 
more succulent these, the more nutriment the plant draws 
from the atmosphere, and the less from the soil,) clovers 
are entitled to the high commendation they have received 
among American farmers. But as these plants are liable 
to premature destruction by the frosts of winter, it is pru- 
dent and wise to intermix with their seeds those of some 
other grass more to be depended on. For this purpose. 

On sands^ light loams, and gravels — and these consti- 
tute the soils usually employed in convertible husbandry 
— the orchard-grass, or tall meadow oat-grass, appears 
best calculated to insure profit. They grow early, delight 
in a clover soil, and are fit for the scythe when clover is 
in bloom — the period at which it ought to be made into 
hay. The hay from this mixture may be made before 
the harvest commences ; and if the soil is good, a second 
crop may be cut almost equal to the first. If intended 
for pasture, the second or third year, either of these grasses 
will afford more abundant herbage than timothy. Lu- 
cerne may be sown on deep sandy loams. 

On clays and heavy loams, timothy may be sown alone, 
or those grasses named in the preceding paragraph, sepa- 
rate or mixed. 

On wet soils and reclaimed swamps, as the only object 
of tillage ought to be to prepare the ground to be laid 
down in grass, the kinds indicated in the preceding re- 
marks as suitable for such soils, and intended for meadow 



CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 233 

grasses, should be selected, yet so scanty is our assort- 
ment, that we can only name timothy and herds-grass. 

II. Meadows. These may be classed under three 
heads : viz., low or alluvial lands, on the banks of riv- 
ers, creeks, and brooks ; uplands naturally moist, or of 
clay or heavy loam ; and reclaimed bogs and swamps. 
These soils, to adopt a common term, are natural to 
grasses^ while the expense of tillage, and the uncertainty 
of a crop, render it most proper to appropriate them to 
grass. The objects, in stocking meadows, are, to select 
those grasses ivhich yield the greatest burden of hay^ and 
afford the most nutriment for cattle. When mixed ?eeds 
are employed, care should be taken to select those which 
can be most profitably cut at the same time. The impro- 
priety of mixing timothy and orchard-grass, for instance, 
will be apparent, from observing that the last should be 
cut in the latter end of June, while the former continues 
to improve till the first of August. Timothy is undoubt- 
edly the best grass which we can employ for meadows, 
on moist or tenacious soils. Herds-grass, and rough-stalk- 
ed meadow-grass, often come in spontaneously. And if 
the timothy is left standing until its seeds have formed, 
seeds enough fall to supply new plants. 

For light loams, sands, and gravels, the tall oat and 
orchard grasses are probably the best ; and to these may 
be added red and white clover. 

The great difficulty is, to prevent the deterioration of 
meadows. This takes place from the better grasses run- 
ning out, and giving place to coarser kinds, to mosses, and 
to useless and noxious plants ; aided, often, by a neglect 
to keep them well drained. 

Hence it is of the first importance to keep the surface 
soil free from standing water, by good and sufficient 
drains ; and it often becomes necessary, and in most cases 
advisable, on a flat surface, to lay the land in narrow 
ridges, at right angles with the ditches. Another precau- 
tion to be observed is, not to depasture them with heavy 
cattle when the ground is wet and poachy. Harrowing in 
the fall has been found beneficial to meadows. It destroys 
mosses, covers the seeds of grasses which have fallen, 
20* 



234 CULTIVATION OF GRASSES. 

or have been previously sown, and thus produces a suc- 
cession of young plants. In Europe, top-dressings of lime, 
marl, compost, ashes, and yard manure are repeated at 
intervals of two or three years. In Flanders, extensive 
appHcations are made in this way, of the urine of animals, 
after it has fermented, or been diluted. It is collected 
in cisterns under the stables, and adjoining the yard in 
which the stock are fed, summer and winter. With us, 
the annual application of a bushel of plaster of Paris is 
found beneficial, on most lands not absolutely wet. The 
gypsum not only thickens the verdure with clover, but is 
of advantage to most of the other grasses. Stable manure 
should be applied only when it can be spared from the 
more profitable uses of tillage, as it is far more beneficial 
mixed with the soil than spread upon the surface. Its most 
economical application as a top-dressing, is in the form 
of compost, made by mixing it with bog-earth, river mud, 
the wash from the highways, or other rich earth, at the 
rate of one load of dung to five or six of earth. If turned 
and mixed well, this constitutes a valuable top-dressing for 
grass grounds, and is best applied in the autumn. When 
these means fail to insure a good crop of hay, it is time 
to resort to the plough, a course of crops, and reseeding 
III. Pastures. Here the object is to obtain those 
grasses which are most nutritious, relished by cattle, and 
which supply green feed from March to December, or 
such a mixture as will give a succession of fresh herbage 
during the grazing season. The tall-oat, rye, and orchard 
grasses are best adapted to the lighter and drier soils, 
where the spontaneous growth of clover and other indige- 
nous grasses should be encouraged by top-dressings, or 
the application of plaster. In moist and stiff grounds, 
timothy and herds-grass may be sown with the tall-oat. 
Our observations, under the preceding head, in regard to 
draining, top-dressing, sowing seeds, and scarifying or har- 
rowing, lose none of their force when applied to pasture 
grounds. It is believed, that, if once introduced upon our 
farms, the valuable grasses which we want would propagate 
themselves. If so, how important is it that we obtain them, 
particularly those which our seed-shops already aiford. 



235 



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THE ATMOSPHERE. 237 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE ATMOSPHERE, AND ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 

A KNOWLEDGE of the Constituents of the atmosphere, 
and of the various and important offices which it performs 
in animal and vegetable economy, is valuable to the far- 
mer, not only as aiding him in promoting the health of 
himself and his family, and of his brute animals — and in all 
his rural and money-making operations — but as offering a 
source of high intellectual enjoyment. Although the sub- 
ject may be deemed too abstruse for the generality of far- 
mers, we consider it fraught with so much useful instruc- 
tion, that we venture to say it will be read with interest by 
many of our young friends, and we would fain hope that it 
may lead some of them into a course of study, in physical 
science, which will not only benefit them individually, but 
ultimately become beneficial to the human family. Nei- 
ther fame nor fortune is hereditary. And let no young 
man be deterred from aspiring to both, because he is the 
son of an humble farmer. The brightest geniuses of the 
age have come from the plough. The Creator has en- 
dowed us with power to become acquainted with many 
of the apparent phenomena of Nature, and of rendering 
them subservient to our wants ; and, in this free country, 
the humblest individual has ample leisure and means to 
pursue the investigation, and win the reward. The time 
and means that are usually devoted, in early life, to frivo- 
lous, and often deleterious pleasures, would suffice to lay 
in a stock of useful knowledge, which would become a 
treasure and a blessing in after-life. But it should never 
be forgotten, that in all our undertakings, mental, moral, 
and physical, a determined perseverance is the only ra- 
tional prelude to success. With these views and hopes, 
we shall briefly describe the principal constituent parts of 
the atmosphere, and some of its more important offices, 
that seem most hkely to interest the agriculturist. 



238 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND 

The atmosphere is composed principally of two invisi- 
ble gases, termed oxygen^ (sometimes vital air, being 
indispensable to animal life,) and azote or nitrogen^ in the 
proportion of about four fifths of the latter to one fifth of 
the former. This proportion is found to exist, with tri- 
fling modifications, in all latitudes and at all elevations. 
Although these elements are invisible in the atmosphere, 
they both assume liquid and solid forms under many and 
various circumstances. 

Nitrogen abounds in animals, but seldom to a great 
extent in plants. It is however found in wheat, in what 
is denominated gluten, and it is this which gives to that 
grain its prominent value. It abounds in the urine, but 
seldom, or but partially, in the dung of animals. " It is 
the base of ammonia and nitric acid, (aquafortis,) and ap- 
pears to be the substance which Nature employs in con- 
verting vegetable into animal substances." — Fourcroy. 
Its principal office seems to be, to neutralize, in some 
measure, the properties of oxygen, and to render it fit for 
respiration and combustion. 

Oxygen enters more or less into all animal and vegeta- 
ble matters. It constitutes 88 parts in 100 of water, — 
forms from 40 to 70 per cent, of all vegetable acids, — 
more than 40 per cent, of the wood of the oak and beech, 
— about 50 per cent, of starch, the nutritious property, 
next in value to gluten, of grain, pulse, and roots, and 64 
per cent, in sugar. It is essential to animal and vegetable 
life ; it is necessary to fermentation, to combustion, to the 
germination of seeds, and to the growth and maturity of 
plants ; and combining with the carbon of the blood, it 
produces the greatest proportion of animal heat. It also 
combines with metals and forms oxydes, or, in common 
language, rust. 

Nitrogen and oxygen are called simple bodies, because 
they are supposed to be incapable of division or decom- 
position. 

Carbonic acid gas, also, is found to constitute about one 
thousandth part of the atmosphere ; and in winter, it has 
been found to amount to one five hundredth part. This 
is a compound substance, composed of two parts of oxy- 



ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 239 

gen and one of carbon, the latter being found pure in the 
diamond, and forming the substance of mineral and wood 
coals. This gas is produced in abundance by fermenta- 
tion, respiration, and combustion, is absorbed and decom- 
posed by the leaves of plants, the oxygen being set free, 
and the carbon being converted into wood, &c. The 
causes which produce it, sometimes, in confined situa- 
tions, give it in such excess as to render it prejudicial to 
animal health ; but the free access of atmospheric air soon 
restores the equilibrium. It constitutes much of the prop- 
er food of plants. Thus animals and vegetables are mutu- 
ally benefited, through the wise provision of the Creator, 
by their proximity to each other — plants giving off oxygen, 
necessary to animals — and animals giving off carbonic 
acid gas, the pabulum of vegetable life. 

Water also exists in the atmosphere, in the form of an 
elastic fluid. This fluid is found to form, at the tempera- 
ture of 50° Fahrenheit, about one fiftieth of the volume of 
the atmosphere, in the driest time in summer, and is in- 
creased with the increase of temperature — heat accelera- 
ting the evaporation of moisture from the earth's surface. 
When the temperature of the air is diminished, the aque- 
ous fluid is condensed, and appears in the atmosphere in 
the form of vapor, or clouds, and is copiously deposited, 
in summer, in the form of dew. This water is retained, 
principally, in the lower regions of the atmosphere. It 
is so slightly united with the other elements of the atmo- 
sphere, that a change of temperature produces a change in 
its proportions ; whilst nitrogen, oxygen, and carbonic 
acid preserve, always, nearly the same relative proportions. 

" Independently of those bodies which essentially con- 
stitute the atmosphere," says Chaptal, "there are mingled 
in it the exhalations constantly arising from the earth ; 
these are again disengaged from the air, and precipitated, 
as soon as the heat, or any other cause which occasioned 
their ascension, ceases to act upon them. These ex- 
halations modify the properties of the air, [by the carbonic 
acid gas, &c. disengaged from animal and vegetable mat- 
ters in a state of putrefaction,] and affect its purity. The 
oxygen and the water of the atmosphere become impreg- 



240 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND 

nated with the particles of the exhalations, which are de- 
posited with them upon the surfaces of other bodies, when 
they remain in contact, or enter into combination, with 
them. The origin and dissemination of many maladies 
may be traced to this source ; the germ of them is carried 
through the air by the aqueous fluid. And for the same 
reason it is, that intermittent fevers are endemic in those 
situations where large quantities of vegetable matter are 
undergoing decomposition, as upon the borders of ponds 
and marshes ; and that the miasm, which arises from nu- 
merous animal remains, in a state of decomposition, be- 
comes a fruitful source of disease. It is for the same rea- 
son also dangerous, under some circumstances, to breathe 
the evening air ; the aqueous fluid contained in it is loaded 
with noxious principles, w^hich the heat of the sun, during 
the day, had caused to ascend into the atmosphere. The 
disagreeable odor, conveyed to us in mists, is owing to 
the power of the aqueous fluid in transmitting the exhala- 
tions arising from the earth. The manner in which the 
air conveys to us the perfume of plants, and the odors 
which it contracts from the exhalations of bodies in a state 
of decomposition, indicates clearly its influence in produ- 
cing maladies, and still more plainly its power of propaga- 
ting those that are contagious." — Chemistry applied to 
Agriculture. 

According to the best authorities, a man inhales, or takes 
into his lungs, from six to ten pints of air at every respi- 
ration or breath. This air comes in contact with the 
blood in the lungs, and both the blood and the air un- 
dergo a material change in consequence. The blood im- 
bibes a portion of the oxygen from the air, assumes a 
florid red hue, and acquires thereby the power of sup- 
porting life, and is fitted to become a part of the living ani- 
mal. The air receives, in return for the oxygen, or vital 
air, which it gives to the blood, about an equal portion 
of carbonic acid, which vitiates it, and renders it unfit for 
further respiration ; or, if this vitiated or impure air is 
again respired, the blood becomes likewise vitiated by its 
contact with it, and all its functions become more or less 
disordered. x\tmospheric air, as we have observed, con- 



ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 241 

tains about 79 parts of nitrogen, 21 of oxygen, and near- 
ly one of carbonic acid. A greater or less quantity of 
oxygen unfits it for healthy respiration, and causes disor- 
ganization and disease in the animal system. When at- 
mospheric air is inhaled upon the lungs, it parts with 8 
or 8| per cent, of its oxygen, and receives in return a 
like quantity of carbonic acid. Thus atmospheric air 
becomes rapidly vitiated by being breathed, and is as 
speedily restored to its purity by li^althy vegetation, which 
takes up the carbonic acid, or decomposes it, and gives 
off, or sets free, oxygen. According to Dr. Bostock's 
estimate, an average-sized man consumes about 45,000 
cubic inches of oxygen, and gives out about 40,000 of 
carbonic acid, in 24 hours. " Taking," says Dr. Combe, 
'' the consumption of air at 20 cubic inches at each breath- 
ing, as a very low medium, and rating the number of res- 
pirations at 15 in a minute, it appears that, in the space 
of one minute, no less than 300 cubic inches of air are 
required for the respiration of a single person. In the 
same space of time, 24 cubic inches of oxygen disappear, 
and are replaced by an equal amount of carbonic acid, so 
that in the course of an hour one pair of lungs will, at a 
low estimate, vitiate the air by the abstraction of no less 
than 1,440 cubic inches of oxygen, and the addition of 
an equal number of carbonic acid, thus constituting a 
source of impurity which cannot whh safety be over- 
looked." 

Atmospheric air becomes vitiated by one, or a combi- 
nation, of the following causes : — 

1. By animal respiration ; 

2. By decaying animal and vegetable matters ; 

3. By stagnant waters ; and, 

4. By combustion in close apartments. 

Many cases are cited of the fatal effects of breathing 
highly-vitiated air in prisons, in small, close apartments, 
and in unhealthy districts. One of the most horrible was 
that which occurred in the Black Hole of Calcutta, where 
one hundred and forty Englishmen were thrust into a 
confined place, eighteen feet square, in which there were 
but two small windows on one side, and where ventilation 
21 XV. 



242 THE ATMOSPHERE, AND 

was impossible. Scarcely was the door shut upon the 
prisoners, when their sufferings, for want of fresh air, 
commenced, and in six hours ninety-six of them were 
dead. In the morning only twenty-three of them were 
living, many of whom were subsequently cut off by pu- 
trid fever, caused by the dreadful effluvia and the corrup- 
tion of the air. Other cases are recorded of persons 
dying, for want of fresh air, in small, close cabins ; and 
numerous cases are annually recorded of deaths caused 
by burning charcoal in close apartments, where the oxygen 
is abstracted from the atmosphere, by the carbon of the 
charcoal, to form carbonic acid. But it is not only where 
death or severe sickness ensues, that the breathing of viti- 
ated air is hurtful ; it is always prejudicial, more or less, 
to health ; it impairs the constitution, and is often the 
latent cause of diseases which ultimately prove fatal. 
" The chief symptoms," says Orfila, " which follow the 
breathing impure air, are great heaviness in the head, 
tinghng in the ears, troubled sight, a great inclination to 
sleep, diminution of strength, and falhng down." These 
sensations are experienced in crowded, heated rooms, in 
steam-boat and canal-boat cabins, &c. 

Decaying animal and vegetable matters are a prolific 
source of disease, by vitiating the atmosphere we breathe, 
particularly in cellars, close yards, or other places where 
the effluvia they generate are not speedily dissipated by the 
winds. Hence fevers are most prevalent where due re- 
gard is not had to cleanliness, as in dwellings where there 
are wet and dirty cellars, adjoining filthy yards and lanes, 
and in houses in and about which animal and vegetable 
matters are suffered to accumulate and putrefy. Hence 
the sickness that pervades newly-cleared countries, from 
the decay of vegetable matters, on the first exposure of 
the soil to the full influence of solar heat. 

The deleterious influence of stagnant waters upon the 
atmosphere is known to all, and when combined with 
animal and vegetable putrefaction, the evil is greatly in- 
creased. Hence the draining of marshes and wet lands 
contributes essentially to the healthiness of a neighborhood. 

Combustion also vitiates the air in close rooms, par- 



ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 243 

ticularly gas-lights — a single gas-burner consuniing more 
oxygen, according to Combe, and producing more car- 
bonic acid gas, to deteriorate the atmosphere of a room, 
than six or eight candles. 

We shall not speak of the other matters which commingle 
in the atmosphere, as light, heat, and electricity, although 
they possess a great influence upon animals and plants — 
but proceed to the improvement, and the apphcation to 
rural affairs, of the facts already established. 

We MAY profit by these truths : — 

1. In selecting sites for our dwellings — taking care to 
have them in airy situations, remote from marshes, ponds, 
and stagnant waters, which vitiate, by the exhalations they 
give, the atmosphere we breathe, and thereby generate 
disease. 

2. In the manner of constructing our dwellings. The 
cellars should be dry, with windows at opposite sides, for 
ventilation, whenever the weather will permit. The 
rooms should be lofty, and rather capacious than con- 
tracted, should all open, by windows, to the exterior, and 
should be ventilated every fair morning in summer. 

3. In improving our personal and domestic habits^ by 
practising cleanliness, an ancient, if not a modern virtue ; 
— by avoiding the deleterious influence of the night air, 
especially in autumn, when much vegetable matter is in 
the process of decay ; — by well ventilating our apartments, 
particularly when the atmosphere is pwe and salubrious ; 
— by keeping our cellars free from putrefying vegetables, 
and other filth ; — by graduating the temperature of our 
rooms in winter, which should not be suffered to rise 
above 64° of Fahrenheit ; by avoiding hot sleeping- 
apartments, in which the temperature often varies, be- 
tween the hour of going to bed, where fires are kept up, 
and the hour of rising, when the fires have gone out, — a 
transition too trying for the most robust constitution ; — 
by abandoning the use of foot-stoves, which transform 
our wives and daughters into green-house plants, and 
render them too sensitive to cold, poison the air they 
respire, and beguile them into indolent and inactive hab- 
its, as detrimental to their health as to their useful- 



244 THE ATxMO SPHERE, AND 

ness ; — by taking frequent exercise in the open air, when 
our habits are studious or sedentary ; — by sleeping in 
rooms without fires, with open partition doors, that fresh 
air may at all times have free access, and by avoiding 
lodging too many persons in the same room ; — and by 
inducing our females to go warmly and tidily clad, as well 
to church as to parties of pleasure. How many human 
constitutions are ruined, in our cities and villages, by 
indulging in habits which philosophy and reason teach us 
to avoid. 

4. In multiplying ornamental trees and shrubs about 
our dwellings^ which serve to purify the air, abate the 
fervor of summer heats, by carrying off a portion of the 
caloric with the moisture they exhale, and which are 
withal an embellishment and an evidence of good taste. 

5. In the construction of our stables and cattle-sheds. 
Farm-stock are as much benefited by cleanliness and good 
air as man ; and the same precautions which go to se- 
cure the health of the latter are essentially requisite to 
promote the thrift and well-being of the former. Hence 
the importance of having clean and well-ventilated stables 
and sheds, of removing the dung so that it does not under- 
go fermentation in the stalls, and of giving cattle whole- 
some exercise. 

6. In the planting of our seeds. The atmosphere be- 
ing essential to germination, both on account of the oxy- 
gen and heat which it contains, all seeds should be deposit- 
ed in the soil within its reach ; they should be put just so 
low as will barely secure about them moisture enough to 
insure their germination. We have reason to think, that 
small seeds often fail to grow from being buried too deep 
in the soil, and that, even if they germinate, the food which 
the cotyledons afford, and which is their only support till 
the seminal leaves are developed, is not sufficient to carry 
the plumula, or upright shoot, to the earth's surface, where 
alone the leaves can exercise their office of elaborating 
or preparing the food. 

7. In the management of our field and garden crops. 
The soil has a strong affmity for water, and the atmo- 
sphere penetrates it freely, when pulverulent and loose; but 



ITS USES TO THE HUSBANDMAN. 245 

where the soil is compact and crusted, neither the atmo- 
sphere nor the dews are able fully to exert their salutary 
influence in promoting the growth of the vegetation upon 
it. In the former case, the soil is Hke a sponge, per- 
vious to atmosphere and dew, and transmitting both to 
the roots of plants, with the elementary food with which 
they are both charged. But where the earth is hard and 
crusted, by alternate rain and sunshine, neither dew nor 
air penetrates freely, and the former is dissipated by the 
first rays of the morning sun. Hence the best preventive 
against the evils of drought, is the frequent stirring of the 
surface, and keeping it constantly permeable to atmo- 
spheric air, and the vegetable nutrition with which it 
abounds. We remember an account of a remarkable 
illustration of the benefit of frequently stirring the surface 
of cultivated lands, given by Curwen, a distinguished 
British agriculturist. He prepared a field of stiff, forbid- 
ding land, and planted it with cabbages. His neighbors 
all declared he would get no crop ; but he put a horse 
and cultivator among the plants, and subjected the ground 
to almost constant stirring during the growing season. 
The result was, he gathered an immense crop, some of the 
cabbages weighing over 50 lbs. each. The farmer may 
derive great benefit from this practice in the culture of 
drilled and hoed crops, provided he does not go so deep 
as to cut the roots of his plants, or throw his manure to 
the surface. 

8. In draining our wet lands ^ which will contribute at the 
same time to promote health, and augment our profits. 
For, generally speaking, our wet and marshy lands are 
the richest in organic matters, and become the most prof- 
itable to the owner, when thoroughly drained. And, 
lastly, we may profit from the facts we have detailed — 

9. In the management of our manure. All the food 
of vegetables must be resolved into a hquid or gaseous 
form, before it can enter the mouths of plants, or become 
Incorporated in the vegetable structure. This change is 
effected, in dung, by fermentation or decomposition, by 
which the parts are separated. The gaseous matters first 
escape. If fermentation takes place in the soil, the earths 

21* 



216 GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 

imbibe, and the plants growing thereon are nourished by 
them. If fermentation takes place upon the surface, 
either in the yard or in the field, these gases rise, from 
their specific gravity being less than that of atmospheric 
air, and are dissipated by the winds. The liquid matters 
escape next. If buried in the soil, the soil absorbs and 
gives them off to plants. If left upon the surface, they are 
washed away by rains, or sink, with little or no benefit to 
the owner, into the earth beneath them. The whole of 
the matter of dead animals and plants is convertible, if 
buried in the soil, into living plants, by the ordinary pro- 
cesses of Nature ; and it is capable, however solid it may 
seem, of being reduced to liquid or gaseous forms, fitted 
to the wants of our crops. Indeed, it proceeds to take 
these forms immediately, on its losing its vitality, as soon 
as it comes in contact with air, heat, and water, the great 
agents of decomposition. The moment fermentation be- 
gins, the waste of vegetable food begins, if the fermenta- 
tion takes place upon the surface ; carbonic acid gas is 
disengaged, and is scattered by the winds ; the oxygen 
of the atmosphere, uniting with the hydrogen of the mass, 
forms water, which settles into the ground, or is carried 
off by the rains ; the mass is reduced in volume ; and 
when fermentation has exhausted its force, it has lost one 
half of its fertihzing properties. If the fermentation takes 
place in the dung-yard, or upon the field, we repeat, 
this half is lost to all useful purposes of the farm. If it 
takes place in the soil, the earth imbibes it, and the plants 
growing thereon are fed and nourished by it — the gases 
and liquids are converted into the solid matter of the grow- 
ing crop, be it grain, grass, pulse, or roots. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

ON THE GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 

Seeds often fail to grow^ and the seedsman is as 
often blamed, for vending bad seeds, when they are really 



GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 247 

good, and when the cause of their not growing is owing 
to the gardener or planter. To induce germination, 
moisture, atmospheric air, and a certain temperature, are 
indispensable ; and it is also requisite that light be ex- 
cluded, until the nutriment in the seed is exhausted, or 
until the root can draw nourishment from the soil. The 
first effect of the air, heat, and moisture upon the seed is 
to change its properties, — to convert its starch into sugar 
— into a sort of milky pulp, the proper food of the em- 
bryo plant. If at this stage the seed becomes dry, its 
vitality is believed to be destroyed ; but if these agents 
are permitted to exert their influence, the contents of the 
seed swell by degrees, and the first point of the future 
root, having formed, breaks through the shell in a down- 
ward direction, and at about the same time the point of 
the future stem comes forth in an upward direction. The 
presence of air, heat, and moisture is as indispensable to 
the growth of the plant, as it is to the germination of the 
seed. 

Now it often happens, when seeds are planted in fresh- 
stirred ground, or where the soil is moist, they undergo 
the incipient process of fermentation, and the earth not 
being pressed upon them, and dry weather ensuing, the 
moisture is abstracted, and the seeds perish. Too much 
moisture is also often destructive to the vital principle of 
seeds, — and* others again are buried too deep to be vivi- 
fied by solar and atmospheric influence. The first ob- 
ject in planting, therefore, should be, to place the seed 
just so far under the surface, and so to cover it with 
earth, as shall barely secure to it a constant supply of 
moisture. There are many seeds, as of the carrot, pars- 
nip, orchard-grass, &c., which, if not previously steeped, 
or the soil well pulverized and pressed upon them, fail to 
grow for want of moisture. Hence, in sowing orchard- 
grass, it is found prudent to spread the seed upon a floor, 
and sprinkle it with water, before it is sown, and to pass 
a roller over the ground after it is sown. And hence, in 
light garden mould, it is advisable to press, with the hoe 
or spade, the earth upon all light seeds after they are 
sown. 



248 GERMINATION OF SEEDS. 

But we would draw the attention of the farmer, as well 
as of the gardener, to another mode of preventing failure 
and disappointment in the growth of certain seeds — and 
that is, by sprouting them before they are planted. This 
may be conveniently done with Indian corn, pumpkins, 
mangel wurtzel, beets, &c., on the farm, and with mel- 
ons, beans, cucumbers, peppers, and a great number 
of other seeds, which are assigned to the garden. The 
mode of doing it with the field-seeds we have named is 
this : Steep the seeds twelve or twenty hours in water of 
a tepid or warm temperature — then take off the water, 
and leave them in a warm place, covered, to exclude the 
light and prevent their drying, or in a dark cellar or 
room, and the radicles or roots will shoot in a few days, 
and may then be planted without injury. Being obHged 
to suspend our planting four days, on account of rain, we 
found our seed, which had been previously steeped, and 
set by in a dark room, with radicles two or three inches 
long. It was planted with but little inconvenience, and 
did remarkably well. Mr. I. Nott sprouted a part of his 
corn last year, while a part of the seed was not sprouted, 
— and, what is worthy the particular notice of the farmer, 
he assures us, that the sprouted corn ivas not injured by 
the wire-worm^ while the unsteeped seed was seriously in- 
jured^ although planted by the side of each other. Mr. 
Nott accounts for the difference in this way : The wire- 
worm attacks the chit, and feeds upon and destroys the 
germ ; but' the radicles having protruded, and not being 
to the taste of the worm, the insect attacked the solid 
part of the kernel, where its progress was too slow, and 
too remote from the germ, to retard its growth. Mr. 
Nott also sprouted his mangel wurtzel seed, and planted 
it so late as the 27th of June. Almost every seed grew, 
and the crop might be called a good one early in Septem- 
ber. 

To sprout garden-seeds, procure two sods, of equal 
size, say 18 inches square ; lay one down in the corner 
of the kitchen chimney, grass down ; lay your seeds upon 
it ; if small, wrap them in a piece of brown paper ; then 
place the other sod upon them, grass up — water well with 



ON STALL-FEEDING CATTLE. 249 

warm water, and the seeds will sprout in twenty-four to 
forty-eight hours. 

There is one manifest advantage in sprouting seeds, — 
it tests their goodness, and shows whether they will or 
will not grow. A small quantity of seed-corn, submitted 
to this test before planting, would in many instances pre- 
vent great loss to the farmer. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

# ON STALL-FEEDING CATTLE. 

In the management of our cattle, as in the management 
of our crops, much is lost for want of system and regular- 
ity. The stall-feeding of neat cattle for the butcher is 
annually increasing, and promises to increase in interest, 
as we progress in the culture of roots. There is proba- 
bly the difference of one third to one half, in the profits 
of the business, whether it is well or badly managed. 
Under this view of its importance, we extract from the 
'Farmer's Series' the following compendium of the man- 
agement recommended in that work. 

" The first point is the comfort of accommodation ; 
for in whatever way they [cattle] may be placed — whether 
under sheds or in close ox-houses — they should have the 
security of perfect shelter from the weather, with a certain 
degree of warmth ; that is to say — if in open hammels, the 
sheds should be broad, the roof low, and the floor well 
covered with an abundance of dry litter. We are, how- 
ever, decidedly of opinion, that close walls will further the 
object more promptly ; though we do not coincide in the 
idea that it will be promoted by too much heat ; and we 
should therefore recommend a moderate degree of healthful 
ventilation. In these stalls litter is very frequently dispens- 
ed with — or else sand, or any rubbish, is substituted for 
straw ; but there can be no doubt that animals enjoy the 
comfort of a dry bed as well as their master, and the more 
they seek repose in it the better. 



250 THE ECONOMY OF 

'' The next is strict regularity in the administration of 
food — both as regards the stated quantity and the time of 
supplying it. The periods may be regulated as the feeder 
thinks proper ; but, whenever adopted, should never after- 
wards be altered. Oxen are quiet animals, and those 
which are fed in the house soon acquire a precise knowl- 
edge of the exact hour at which food is usually given ; and 
if that be transgressed, or the quantity be not furnish- 
ed, they become restless ; but if the time and quantity be 
strictly adhered to, they remain tranquil until the next 
period arrives. If no disturbance takes place, they, in- 
deed, generally lie down to ruminate, and nothing will be 
found to forward the process of fattening more than this 
perfect quietude ; wherefore, the stalls should not only 
be well bedded, but light should be very much excluded, 
the doors should be closed, all outward annoyances as far 
as possible prevented — and, in short, every means should 
be used to promote complete ease, rest, and contentment. 

" Some persons serve out food as often as five times a 
day ; but the most prudent, and the better practice, is to 
give it as soon as possible after day-hght, at noon, and 
some time before sunset ; which enables the animals to 
fill their bellies, and to have sufficient time for that quiet 
digestion which is interrupted by too frequent feeding. 
In stating that the quantity should be moderate, we how- 
ever alluded merely to the not allowing the animal to have 
so much as to cloy him ; he ought always to have as much 
as he can fairly eat with a rehsh, but the moment he begins 
to toss it about, it will be then evident that the keenness 
of his appetite is satisfied, and it should be instantly re- 
moved. 

'' The last is thorough cleanliness. The ox-house 
should be opened before day-light, and well cleansed, both 
by pail and broom, from every impurity. After the ani- 
mals have been satisfied with food, whatever may remain 
should be instantly removed, and the cribs and mangers 
should be swept out, and washed, if necessary ; water 
should then be given without limitation.* If their hides 

* According to an experiment stated by Sir John Sinclair, an old 
man was appointed to discover how often some cattle, consuming 



CUTTING UP CORN. 251 

be then wisped, it visibly occasions a very pleasurable sen- 
sation ; as they begin to fatten, the ancient coat falls off, 
and if this be accelerated by the curry-comb, the better 
appearance of the beast will well repay the trouble." 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE ECONOMY OF CUTTING UP CORN. 

Thirty years ago, we read a communication of 
John Nicholas, then we believe of Virginia, on the advan- 
tages of cutting up instead of topping Indian corn. These 
advantages appeared to us so palpable, that in the noviti- 
ate of our farming operations, twenty-odd years ago, we 
reduced it to practice ; and although since we have occa- 
sionally adopted the topping system, by way of compari- 
son, we have made it our general practice to cut up the 
crop ever since. We are convinced, from our long expe- 
rience, that it possesses over the old mode the following 
advantages. 

1. It saves labor. With proper implements, which ev- 
ery farm can furnish without expense, two smart men will 
cut up and stock two acres in a day. They cannot top 
more than one acre, and they are to be bound, stocked, 
and backed off the field, or left to be bleached till the 
corn is harvested, when they have lost half their value. 
A hill is gathered with a blow in cutting up ; in topping, 
a cut must be made upon every stalk. 

2. It adds to the grain crop. We have satisfied our- 
selves, by careful experiments, that we gain six to ten 
bushels of corn per acre, by cutting up, above what we 

chaff and straw upon a farm, went to the watering-trough in a short 
winter's day, and, that he might not be confused in the execution of 
his orders, one particular bullock was pointed out for his report ; ac- 
cording to which, it drank eight times in the course of the day, and 
the man was convinced that the rest of the cattle drank as often as the 
one fixed on. Now, twice a day is generally the most in which they 
get water ; and they are not able, at one or two opportunities, to 
drink a sufficient quantity. — Husbandry of Scotland, p. 100. 



252 ECONOMY OF CUTTING UP CORN. 

obtain by topping our corn. And we account for it on 
the well-known principles in vegetable physiology, that all 
the nutriment of plants must be elaborated, or prepared, in 
the leaves, and that this elaborated sap, or prepared food, 
descends — consequently, that when the leaves above the 
corn are taken off, by topping, the grain can gain no further 
nutriment, or accession of growth ; and that when the 
crop is cut up, and stooked, the grain does continue to 
obtain nutriment, and accession of growth, for some days, 
from the descending, or elaborated sap, whh which the 
succulent stems are abundantly charged. The leaves 
also continue their elaborating process for some days 
after the corn is cut. 

3. It augments the cattle-fodder^ and preserves its nu- 
tritions properties. Cut and well stooked, neither the 
grain nor the forage is likely to be seriously injured by 
the weather, even if left in the field late. If topped, the 
tops must be exposed to the deteriorating influence of the 
rains, winds, and sun, until they are dry enough to bind, 
which diminishes their value. If cut up, the whole of the 
stalks are converted into forage. If topped, but a small 
part becomes useful. And if the butts are fed in the cat- 
tle-yards, they imbibe additional fertilizing properties from 
the urine and liquids which abound there, and which are 
lost if there is no litter to absorb them. Hence, 

In the fourth place , it gives more food to the crops 
as well as to the cattle, by saving that which otherwise is 
often lost to the farm. And, 

Finally^ cutting up has this important advantage, at 
least in the north, — it secures the crop, both grain and for- 
age, from the damage of early autumnal frosts — for after 
the grain is cut and stooked, it is not liable to injury from 
their occurrence. We may add, that the ground may be 
cleared two or three weeks earlier, for a winter crop, 
where it is desirable to sow in autumn. 



ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 263 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 

There are few things better calculated to attach us to 
our HOMES, — where the social virtues love to congre- 
gate, and to dispense their blessings, than rural embel- 
lishments. This is true whether we apply the term to 
our neighborhood or individual abode. The pubhc grounds 
about the great cities of the old continent, some of which 
comprise an area of five hundred acres, are the theme of 
general admiration, the theatres of healthful exercise and 
recreation, and the sources of high intellectual enjoyment. 
The lesser towns and villages, even of oui' own country, 
owe more of their charm and interest to the trees and 
plants which embellish their squares, streets, and grounds, 
in the eye of a man of taste, than to an}/ ostentatious show 
of brick and mortar — more to the beauties of Nature, 
than to the works of man. Nay, the highest efforts of 
the human intellect are in vain put in requisition to imitate 
the handiworks of the Creator. And when we come 
down to the suburban residence, and even to the unostenta- 
tious abode of the farmer, how are their beauties height- 
ened, and their value enhanced, by a screen of ornamen- 
tal trees, and a well-kept garden. 

Loudon tells us, that in travelling from Strasburgh to 
Munich, he passed through a continued avenue of forest 
and fruit trees, planted on both sides of the highway, for 
more than one hundred miles. Who that has passed 
through New England, in summer, has not admired the 
beautiful trees with which he is in a measure enshroud- 
ed? The great objection to planting is, that one may 
not live to enjoy the fruit or the shade of the trees which 
he plants. Such an objection is unworthy of the age, 
which should, if it does not, have regard to the interests 
of the human family, and of posterity, — and is, besides, 
affecting to hold a shorter tenure of life than all of us hope 
22 XV. 



254 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 

for, and most of us expect. Twenty years ago, at forty 
years of age, we commenced the cultivation of what was 
termed a barren, untameable common, not an acre of which 
had been cultivated, and on which a tree or shrub had 
never been planted by the hand of man. We have now 
growing in our court-yard, comprising about half an acre, 
and in the highway in front of it, fifty species of forest and 
ornamental trees, many of them forty and fifty feet high, 
more than fifty species of ornamental shrubs, not including 
the rose, besides a vast number of herbaceous, ornamen- 
tal, and bulbous and flowering perennial plants — the great- 
est number of which, in all their variety and hue of foli- 
age, flowers, and fruil, may be embraced in a single view 
from the piazza. Most of our fruits have been raised by 
us from the seed, or propagated by grafting or budding. 
Yet we can enumerate more than two hundred kinds, in- 
cluding varieties, which we are now in the habit of gath- 
ering annually from trees, vines, &c. of our own planting. 
We feel grateful to God for these rich and abundant bles- 
sings, and for the impulse which prompted our labor. We 
have adduced our own example, not in a spirit of vaunting, 
but to convince the young and the middle-aged, that there 
is abundant reason for them to plant, with the hope of en- 
joying the fruits of their labor. The old should plant from 
an obligation they owe to society, and for the requital 
of which they have but a short period allowed them. 
The young should plant for the double purpose of ben- 
efiting themselves and their children. 

We would by no means advise that the farmer should 
confine himself to mere ornamental trees. There are 
many fruit-trees that are not only ornamental but useful, 
about dwellings, as the cherry, pear, apple, quince, &c. 

There is not a spring or an autumn in which a few 
hours cannot be spared, without detriment to the labors 
of the farm, to plant out fruit and ornamental trees and 
shrubbery about the dwelling, and but very few hours are 
requisite. There is no great art required in the business. 
The holes for the plants should be dug larger and deeper 
than the size of the roots, in order that these may be sur- 
rounded on all sides by rich surface mould, into which the 



ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 255 

new roots may push freely, and find food. The infertile 
soil from the pit should be thrown away, and its place 
supplied by mould taken from the surrounding surface ; 
the roots should have their natural direction, and the earth 
be well pressed upon them ; and the plants should be pro- 
tected from cattle till they are of a size not to be injured 
by them. 

Our attention has been particularly drawn to this sub- 
ject, by reading the report and the constitution of the 
Bangor Association, termed, the Ornamental Tree Soci- 
ety, which has been recently formed, and whose object 
is the embellishment of their city by planting out forest 
trees. The constitution requires, that "every member 
shall himself set out, or cause to be set out, one or more 
ornamental trees, on such of the public streets or squares 
of the city as he may elect" — the kind of tree, and the 
distance of planting, to be determined by the directors. 
Accompanying the report, in the New England Farmer, 
are two letters from General Dearborn, on ornamental 
planting, evincing much experience and good taste in the 
matter. 

" The monotony of appearance, which lines or clumps 
of the same tree produce, is to be avoided, and a pic- 
turesque and agreeable aspect obtained, by increasing 
the varieties ;* for as the periods of their fohation are so 
very different, as well as the tints of green when in vege- 
tation, and the remarkable autumnal changes quite as dis- 
similar, they are presenting an ever-varying, yet always 
pleasing and interesting scene. Besides, we have so 
many magnificent species of native trees, which flourish 
luxuriantly, even in the most exposed situations, that I 
have never been able to divine, why one particular tree 
should be so universally selected, as shades, or for orna- 
ment, not only around private dwellings, but for all pub- 
lic places. As well might all flowers be excluded from 
our gardens but the rose, or the lilach, and all fruits from 
our orchards but the apple." 

" For your streets I recommend the alternate planting 

* The General considers the planting of only one kind of tree as 
evincing a bad taste. 



256 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 

out of rock maples, elms, white ash, white maple, bass- 
wood, beech, and red, white, and other oaks." [We will 
add to the hst of native trees, the buttonwood, the tulip- 
tree or whitewood, and cucumber-tree, {Magnolia acu- 
minata,) for the city and village, and the black walnut, 
butternut, and honey locust for the country.] " The 
rock maple is certainly one of our most superb trees, and 
in my own estimation superior to the elm. Its form and 
foliage, with the splendid changes of its autumnal aspect, 
are of surpassing beauty. The basswood ( Tilia Amer- 
icana) is the American linden, or lime, and much 
superior, for its size, graceful form, and large leaves, to 
the much celebrated and favorite European species. It 
is easy to transplant, and of rapid growth. The oaks are 
of rapid growth, and were once as renowned as the name of 
England. They have been the choice trees of all the cel- 
ebrated nations of antiquity. The occidental plane, or 
American buttonwood, is also a finer tree than the orien- 
tal variety, which was so much admired and cultivated by 
the Asiatics and Romans." 

For pubhc grounds and squares, the General recom- 
mends, also, the white pine, cedar, hemlock, spruce, and 
we would add the fir, the larch, and a sprinkling of for- 
eign trees, as the Enghsh and Scotch elms, larch, abeel, 
horse chestnut, mountain ash, &c., which may be obtained 
at the nurseries. He recommends the spring as the best 
season for transplanting in New England ; that the roots 
be taken up as entire as possible ; that the trees be not 
more than two inches in diameter ; that the tops be not 
cut or mutilated ; — '' Do not," says he, " cut off a sin- 
gle twig, save such as may be within four or five feet of 
the ground." He also directs that large and deep holes 
be made for the reception of the trees, and that these 
holes be filled with the best mould, to be well trodden down 
and watered after the tree is planted. In regard to conif- 
erous and other evergreens. General Dearborn recom- 
mends, that they be taken from open grounds — (nurseries 
are the best) — all the limbs carefully preserved, and as 
much of the dirt about the roots retained as possible. 
" The best time," he continues, "to transplant all the 



ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT, 257 

evergreen trees is later than that for the deciduous, and 
is just before they commence vegetation.'''' These direc- 
tions are all good ; yet we would amend, or rather add 
to, the one which regards the time for transplanting ever- 
greens. We transplant them just after vegetation has 
commenced — have transplanted in July, with entire suc- 
cess — and om' friend, Michael Floy, of New York, a 
professional nurseryman, prefers the month of August. 
He showed us, the other day, several large firs, which had 
been planted at that season, in front of his grounds at Har- 
lem, all of which lived and did well. We think evergreens 
should be planted when the tree is growing — as the foliage 
requires a constant supply of nourishment through the 
roots ; and if the functions of these are dormant, as they 
are likely to be when evergreens are transplanted while 
vegetation is at rest, the foliage is apt to wither, and the 
plant to die ; and the only danger to be feared from trans- 
planting these trees at midsummer, is that which arises 
from excessive evaporation. To guard against this, as 
much earth should be lifted with the roots as is practica- 
ble, the holes for their reception should be large and deep, 
filled to the proper height for the roots of the tree with 
loose mould, and well saturated with water ; the surface 
around the tree should be well mulched with litter, and 
this well wet, and superficially covered with earth, and the 
plants occasionally watered if the weather is hot and dry. 

As to the effect of planting, upon the beauty of the 
landscape, Mr. A. J. Downing, in a well-written article 
upon this subject, justly remarks, — 

" Many a dreary and barren prospect maybe rendered 
interesting, — many a natural or artificial deformity hidden, 
and the effects of almost every landscape may be im- 
proved, simply by the judicious employment of trees. 
The most fertile countries would appear but a desert 
without them, and the most picturesque scenery in every 
part of the globe has owed to them its highest charm. 
Added to this, by the recent improvements in the art of 
transplanting, the ornamental planter of the present day 
may realize, almost immediately, what was formerly the 
slow and regular production of years." 
22* 



258 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 

As to the effect of planting and gardening, upon the 
body and mind of those who engage in these pursuits, we 
offer the following remarks from Loudon's ' Suburban 
Gardener,' and we recommend them to the special notice 
of all gentlemen who are troubled with dyspeptic or hypo- 
chondriac affections. 

" There is," says an author, " a great deal of enjoy- 
ment to be derived, from performing the different opera- 
tions of gardening, independently of the health resulting 
from this kind of exercise. To labor for the sake of ar- 
riving at a result, and to be successful in attaining it, are, 
as cause and effect, attended by a certain degree of satis- 
faction to the mind, however simple or rude the labor 
may be, and however unimportant the result obtained. 
To be convinced of this, we have only to imagine our- 
selves employed in any labor from which no result en- 
sues, but that of fatiguing the body, or wearying the mind; 
the turning of a wheel, for example, that is connected 
with no machinery ; or, if connected, effects no useful 
purpose ; the carrying a weight from one point to anoth- 
er and back again ; or the taking a walk without any ob- 
ject in view, but the negative one of preserving health. 
Thus it is not only a condition of our nature, that in or- 
der to secure health we must labor ; but we must also 
labor in such a way as to produce something useful or 
agreeable. Now of the different kinds of useful things 
produced by labor, those things surely which are living 
beings, and which grow and undergo changes before our 
eyes, must be more productive of enjoyment than such 
as are mere brute matter — the kind of labor and other 
circumstances being the same. Hence, a man who plants 
a tree, a hedge, or sows a grass-plot in his garden, lays a 
more certain foundation for enjoyment, than he who 
builds a wall, or lays down a gravel walk ; and hence the 
enjoyment of a citizen, whose recreation, at his suburban 
residence, consists in working in his garden, must be 
higher in the scale, than that of him who amuses himself 
in the plot around his house, with shooting at a mark, or 
playing at bowls." 

A strong illustration of this truth lately came within our 



ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 259 

knowledge. An esteemed friend, who had become wealthy, 
and retired from active business, at the middle age of life, 
had become particularly diseased in body and in mind. 
We advised him to recreate himself in horticultural pur- 
suits, as an antidote to both maladies. He replied, that 
he had no taste, and could not acquire a relish, for these 
pursuits. We thought otherwise ; and as he was going 
to spend the summer with a relative, on a farm which 
belonged to him, we presented him with half a dozen 
trees, asked him to plant them on his farm, and to report 
to us in autunm, whether they had afforded him any 
gratification. When he returned from his summer resi- 
dence, he confessed, with gratitude, that they had been to 
him a source of high interest and gratification ; that they 
had received his constant care and attention ; that he had 
watched, with a kind of paternal feeling, the developement 
of the leaves, and the growth of the branches ; that he 
had examined them almost daily, sedulously guarded them 
from injury, and watered them with his own hand ; and 
that these cares and labors aflbrded pleasure without alloy. 
Had our regretted friend made this experiment two years 
earlier, he would, in all probability, be now numbered 
among the hving, and probably among the hale and hearty. 
But to return to our quotations from Mr. Loudon: — 
"One of the greatest of all the sources of enjoyment 
resulting from the possession of a garden," remarks our 
author, '' is the endless variety which it produces, either 
by the perpetual progress of vegetation which is going for- 
ward in it to maturity, dormancy, or decay, or by the 
almost innumerable kinds of plants which may be raised 
in even the smallest garden. Even the same trees, grown 
in the same garden, are undergoing perpetual changes 
throughout the year ; and trees change also in every suc- 
ceeding year, relatively to that which is past ; because 
they become larger and larger as they advance in age, 
and acquire more and more their characteristic and mature 
form." " Independently of the variety of changes result- 
ing from the variety of plants cultivated, every month 
throughout the year has its particular operations and its 
products ; nay, it would not be too much to say, that 



260 ON RURAL EMBELLISHMENT. 

during six months of the year, a change takes place, and 
is perceptible, in the plants of a garden, every day ; and 
every day has in consequence its operations and its prod- 
ucts." 

In conclusion : A bountiful Providence has given the 
vegetable kingdom for our sustenance, employment, and 
highest intellectual enjoyment, — and has scattered these 
elements of happiness, with a profuse hand, every where 
within our reach. It is left for us to enjoy them in a 
greater or less degree, as we learn to appreciate their 
value, and exert ourselves to apply them to their proper 
use. The brute is content to satisfy its animal wants. 
Man, the lord of the creation, should have a higher aim, 
because he has higher sources of enjoyment than the 
brute, and higher duties to perform — he is the husband- 
man appointed to take care of and nurture the great vine- 
yard, and to carry out the purposes of the all-bountiful 
Giver. 



ADDRESS, 



PREPARED 

TO BE DELIVERED BEFORE 

THE 

AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETIES 

OF 

NEW HAVEN COUNTY, CONN. 
SEPT. 25, 1839. 



For the following Address, — the last prepared by the lamented au- 
thor, — the publishers are indebted to the kindness of his son, Jesse 
Buel, Esq., and the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of New 
Haven. The subjoined letter will show the interest with which the 
reading of the Address was listened to by a large and respectable assem- 
bly, and the regret felt by them that the author should have been pre- 
vented, by sickness, from delivering it himself. 

New Haven, Sept. 26, 1839. 

To Jesse Buel, Esq. — Dear Sir, We have the pleasure of ten- 
dering to you the thanks of the Agricultural and Horticultu- 
ral Societies of New Haven, and of many other citizens, for your 
excellent Address, which was impressively read yesterday to a large 
assembly, both from the city and the neighboring towns. We are 
instructed to say to you, that the discourse was heard with great satisfac- 
tion and delight, and that, by a unanimous vote, a copy is requested 
for publication. 

The sentiment was warmly expressed, that a copy ought to be placed 
in every family in the State, and the only regret manifested by the au- 
dience, was, that the respected author should be arrested by sickness in 
his journey, and that they were thus deprived of listening to one whose 
bright and successful example, gave such decisive weight to his pre- 
cepts of wisdom and of real patriotism. It is made the duty of the 
Committee also to inform Judge Buel, that the Hon. Simeon Bald- 
win, Henry Whitney, and James Brewster, Esqrs., were 
appointed agents to promote the circulation of the ' Cultivator,' and to 
recommend that useful publication to the public favor, and to a more 
extensive and efficient patronage in this State. 

The Committee beg leave to express their personal satisfaction in the 
performance of the pleasing duty assigned them, and to add their 
warmest good wishes for the restoration to health, and for a long course 
of usefulness, to one who has proved himself a real benefactor to hia 
country. 

On behalf of the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies, and of 
many other citizens. 

S. Baldwin, 

B. SiLLIMAN, 

En Ives, 

J. Knight, ^ Committee, SfC. 

James Brewster, 

A. N. Skinner, 

Henry Whitney, 

To the abc^ye, Judge Buel replied, assenting to the publication of the 
Address. 



ADDRESS. 



I APPEAR here, gentlemen, by invitation, to address you 
on the cukivation of the soil, in which it is the object of 
the associations here convened to promote improvement. 
I have been prompted, in the undertaking, rather by a 
desire to render a service, than from a confidence in my 
ability to perform one ; and in the few remarks I have to 
offer, shall need much of your indulgence, for defect in 
style, and deficiency in matter. 

Agriculture and Horticulture are intimately related to 
each other. They both depend upon the soil, and the 
animals and plants which it nurtures, for support, for profit, 
and for pleasure. They both administer, and are indis- 
pensable, to our wants and comforts. They are governed 
in their operations by the same natural laws. Agricul- 
ture has cognizance of the farm, which supplies our prin- 
cipal wants ; Horticukure, of the garden, which adminis- 
ters to our more refined appetkes, to our heakh, and to 
the rational pleasures of mind. The one gives us bread 
and meat, and the materials for our clothing ; the other 
gives us the choice delicacies for the table, and multiplies 
around us the charms of floral beauty, and rural scenery. 
Both tend to beget habits of useful industry and sober re- 
flection, and to improve us in all the social relations of life. 
It is befitting, therefore, that institutions designed to foster 
and promote improvements in these primary and associate 
branches of labor, should unite in their anniversary cele- 
bration, and in returning thanks to the Supreme Being, 
for the bounties of a fruitful season. 

Of the utility of these celebrations, and exhibition of 
the products of the farm and garden which are made at 
them, I have no kind of doubt. They bring to pubhc 



264 ADDRESS. 

notice whatever is new and most valuable, in a business 
which highly interests us. They perform the work of 
years, in diffusing useful knowledge in all the departments 
of rural labor. They awaken, in the bosoms of hundreds, 
the dormant powers of the mind, which otherwise might 
have slumbered in apathy. They excite to industry, to 
emulation, and to the study of those laws which every 
where control the visible creation, and which enhghten 
and reward all who humbly seek and follow their coun- 
sels. Nor is it the cultivator of the farm and garden 
alone that are to be benefited by these exhibitions. What- 
ever tends to increase and improve the products of the 
soil, serves to augment the common stock, and enables 
the grower to supply the market with more and better 
products, and to buy more liberally of the other classes 
in return. The merchant, the manufacturer, the mechan- 
ic, and the professional man, have all, therefore, as deep 
an interest in promoting the improvement of agriculture 
and horticulture, as the farmer and gardener have. So- 
ciety is in some measure a joint concern, at least so far 
as relates to what are termed the producing classes ; the 
more these earn by their labor, the greater is the acces- 
sion of substantial wealth to the community. The amount 
of honey in a hive, depends not upon the number of bees 
which it contains, but upon the labor and skill of the 
working bees. The farmer virtually provides for the 
other classes, and is at the same time their principal pa- 
tron and customer ; and although his labors are too often 
held to be low and menial, by those who cannot, or will 
not appreciate their value, his condition affords the best 
criterion by which to judge of the welfare of those around 
him. No country can long flourish, or preserve its mor- 
al and physical health, whose agriculture is neglected and 
degraded. The amount of a farmer's sales, and of his 
purchases, will depend upon the surplus products of his 
farm, and upon the profits of his labor. Double these, 
by an improved system of husbandry, which I feel assur- 
ed can be done, and which has been far more than real- 
ized, in many old districts of our country, and you will 
double the substantial wealth of the neighborhood, and 



ADDRESS. 266 

impart corresponding life and activity to every other de- 
partment of business. If we look to Spain, to Portugal, 
to a great portion of Italy, to South America, or any 
other country where agriculture is neglected, or holds but 
a subordinate rank, we shall find a degraded population, 
characterized by superstitious ignorance, poverty, and 
crime. Every class of the community, therefore, has a 
deep interest in promoting the improvement of the soil ; 
and all should willingly contribute their aid towards en- 
lightening, honoring, and rewarding those who are hon- 
estly employed in its cultivation. 

With regard to the utility of Agricultural and Horti- 
cultural Societies, much will depend upon the objects 
which bring together their members. If they associate 
for selfish purposes, merely to monopolize the spoils, and 
withdraw whenever they are disappointed in their sinister 
hopes, jealousies and apathy will ensue, and the associa- 
tion will fall, as many under like circumstances have fall- 
en, without public loss or public regret. But if the asso- 
ciation is formed for mutual improvement, and in the be- 
nevolent and patriotic desire to do a pubhc good, — to 
stimulate and reward industry and enterprise, however 
humble their condition, — and strives, by concentrated and 
persevering efforts, to improve the condition of a district, 
of a county, or a State, — then will it inspire public confi- 
dence, obtain public support, and become a public bles- 
sing. To illustrate this last proposition, I beg to refer to 
some associations which have been tried, and whose la- 
bors have been crowned with palpable and brilliant suc- 
cess. 

The counties of Berkshire, Essex, and Worcester, in 
Massachusetts, have each, for many years, maintained an 
Agricultural Society ; and they each distribute ten or 
twelve hundred dollars a year, one half of which is paid 
out of the State treasury, in prizes to successful competi- 
tors in the various departments of agricultural and house- 
hold labor. It is said, and I believe with truth, that 
every dollar thus expended, has made a return of twenty 
dollars, in the increase of agricultural products which it 
has caused ; and so satisfied are the inhabitants of the 
23 XIII. 



266 ADDRESS. 

benefits of the expenditure, that an increased spirit is an- 
nually manifested, by all classes, to maintain and perpet- 
uate these nurseries of industry and improvement. 

The Highland Society of Scotland affords another il- 
lustrious example of the utility of agricultural associations, 
when conducted with a view to public improvement. 
This society was organized in 1784, but so few were its 
members, and so limited its means, that it attracted but 
little public notice, nor effected any great improvement 
in husbandry, till the commencement of the nineteenth 
century. Yet it had sown the good seed which never 
fails, under proper management, to yield to the husband- 
man a bountiful harvest. Nor did it fail in this case. 
The society now numbers twenty-two hundred members, 
embracing most of the opulent and influential men of the 
country, of all professions, and distributes annually in 
prizes, about seventeen thousand dollars. In no country 
or district has agriculture made more rapid strides in im- 
provement, than it has in Scotland, since the organization 
of this society ; and although it may not have been the 
only, it most assuredly has been a principal cause, of this 
wonderful and salutary change. Up to 1792, the agri- 
culture of Scotland, to adopt the language of the Edin- 
burgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, was " wretched 
— execrably bad, in all its localities ! Hardly any wheat 
was attempted to be grown ; oats full of thistles was the 
standard crop, and this was repeated on the greater part 
of the arable land, while it would produce twice the seed 
thrown into it ; turnips, as part of the rotation of crops, 
was unknown, few potatoes were raised, and no grass- 
seeds or clover were sown. A great part of the sum- 
mer was employed, in the now fertile shire of Fife, in 
pulling thistles out of the oats, and bringing them home 
for the horses, or mowing the rushes, or other aquatic 
plants, that grew on the bogs, around the homestead." 
But a change soon came over the land. The seed which 
had been sown by the Highland Society had germinated, 
and its luxuriant foliage already covered the soil. In 
1815, according to the authority I am quoting, "beau- 
tiful fields of wheat were to be seen ; drilled green crops 



ADDRESS. 267 

every where abounded ; the bogs had disappeared ; the 
thistles no longer existed ;'' naked fallows were abolish- 
ed ; draining was extensively introduced ; wet lands were 
made dry ; poor weeping clays were converted into tur- 
nip soils ; and " whole parishes were completely trans- 
formed from unsightly marshes, into beautiful and rich 
wheat-fields ; and where the plough could scarcely be 
driven for slush and water, were heavy crops per acre, 
and heavy weight per bushel."* The improvements in 
Scotch husbandry have continued to advance, until, ac- 
cording to the estimate of Sir John Sinclair, and Profes- 
sor Lowe, both high authority, — until the acreable prod- 
ucts of her soil more than double those of our Atlantic 
States. 

The means adopted by the Highland Society to effect 
these radical improvements in Scotch husbandry, are such 
as may be employed by us with almost a certainty of cor- 
responding success. " In the days of its youth and fee- 
bleness," says the Quarterly Journal I have just quoted, 
"the Highland Society sent the leaven of the turnip 
husbandry into all the glens and straths of the north, by 
offers of small prizes to certain Highland parishes, and 
the same may be said as to the growth of clover and the 
finer grasses. As it advanced in strength, as to numbers, 
and to cash, attention was turned to premiums for stock ; 
then came offers of reward to men of science to discover 
better implements and machines, to diminish friction, and 
consequently draught, such as in the threshing-mill, and 
other parts of agricultural machinery. Still advancing in 
the scale of intellect and of science, premiums were 
offered for essays to bring to light the facts connected 
with chemistry and natural philosophy ; and, under the 
auspices of the society, was set up the Quarterly Journal 
of Agriculture, a work which has been the vehicle of 
conveying so much useful information to the agriculturist, 
that we humbly venture to say, it ought to appear on the 
book-shelf and table of every farmer's parlor. After 
this, the great stock-shows were resolved upon." At the 

* Quarterly Jour. Ag. for June, 1839, p. 70. 



268 ADDRESS. 

Glasgow show in 1838, there were exhibited for prizes, 
461 neat cattle, 121 horses, 274 sheep, and 47 swine, 
total 903 domestic" animals, in 634 lots. Of the other 
kinds of competitors, the numbers were as follows : 

For Butter, - - - - 18 

" Full Milk Cheese, - - 15 

'' Skim Milk Cheese, - - 6 

" Wool, - - - - 8 

" Roots and Seeds, - - 13 

" Implements, - - - 28 

In 88 lots. 

The number of persons present at the exhibition, was 
estimated at over 17,000, besides workmen and official 
people ; — not one in a thousand of whom probably left 
the exhibition without carrying home with him some newly 
acquired knowledge in his business, or some new stimulus 
to improvement and industry. Not only has Scotland 
profited by the labors of her Agricultural Society, but 
Great Britain generally, and even the United States have 
been highly benefited by them. The information which 
that Society has promulgated, has been widely dissemi- 
nated among us by our agricultural journals, and has con- 
tributed not a little to the improvement of the agriculture 
of our country. And in England, which had been thrown 
into the back-ground by the superior improvement of 
Scotch husbandry, it has, within the last year, induced the 
formation of the English Agricultural Society, on a broad 
and liberal scale, which promises important advantages 
to English husbandry, and to agriculture generally. 

As evidence of the utility of Horticultural Societies in 
multiplying and improving the products of our gardens, 
and in promoting rural embellishments, I would refer to 
the neighborhoods of Boston and Philadelphia, where 
societies of this kind have long existed, and to the Horti- 
cultural Society of Londqn. In the first-named cities, 
and their environs, the progress of horticultural improve- 
ment has been manifestly great. Many new and choice 
fruits, culinary vegetables, and ornamental plants, have 



ADDRESS. 269 

been introduced, culture has been much improved, the 
markets better suppHed, and prices cheapened. The 
London Society, although its garden has been established 
but about twenty years, has concentrated in it, from both 
continents, and from the islands of the sea, embracing 
every clime, more than five thousand varieties of edible 
fruits, including fourteen hundred varieties of the apple, 
and seven hundred of the pear, and an innumerable num- 
ber of ornamental plants, many of them before unknown 
in our catalogues. Its collection of pears, which em- 
brace hundreds of recent origin, from Flanders and from 
France, have been already broadly spread over these 
States, and supply our dessert with a succession of this 
delicious fruit. As a corresponding member of this So- 
ciety, I have participated, and have enabled others to 
participate, in the good which it has been generously dif- 
fusing abroad. In 1825, and at subsequent periods, I 
have been supplied liberally with grafts of the choicest 
fruits which it had collected. 

The greatest obstacles to Horticultural improvement, 
are, ignorance of the relative merits of different kinds of 
fruits and culinary vegetables, and of the proper modes 
of cultivating and preparing them for the table. The 
generality of country gardens exhibit but a scanty assort- 
ment of vegetable productions, and these are but badly 
cultivated, and often of inferior quality. The tendency 
of Horticultural exhibitions is, to show the good and bad 
in contrast, or rather to promulgate a knowledge of the 
better sorts, of their culture and use, to excite useful 
competition, and to demonstrate the utility of garden cul- 
ture, as a source of health, pleasure, and profit. I have 
had many fruits presented to me, which the donors con- 
sidered of the first quality, but which I found, on com- 
parison, to be of secondary, or inferior grade. The man 
who has seen or tasted only inferior fruits, may well mis- 
take them for good ones. It is as easy to cultivate good 
fruits as bad ones ; and no one eats so good fruits as he 
who cultivates them himself. It is as easy to cultivate 
the vergaleu as it is the choke pear ; the green gage as 
the horse plum ; and yet the difference between them, in 
23* 



270 ADDRESS. 

all the qualities which we most esteem, is incomparably 
great. But till we can show our neighbor better fruits, 
he will continue to cultivate, and rest content with, his 
choke pear and horse plum. 

With regard to what is termed ornamental gardening, 
or the cultivation of flowering shrubs and plants, there is 
an objection, real or affected, often made by very many 
people, on the ground that it yields no profit. If the great 
object of life was to accumulate money, without enjoying 
any of the comforts which it confers, save the gratification 
of animal appetite, the objection would be conclusive. 
But we are endowed with other and higher appetites than 
the mere brute ; and Providence has every where sur- 
rounded us with suitable objects for their developement, 
and innocent gratification. And shall we reject the prof- 
fered benefaction so kindly tendered for our benefit, be- 
cause it adds nothing to our pelf ? And what is there in 
the natural creation, better calculated to soften down the 
rough asperities of our nature, to awaken kind feelings to- 
wards each other, and excite reverence and love for the 
Most High, than a familiar acquaintance with the wonders 
and beauties of his vegetable kingdom. Did you ever 
know a misanthrope, or a miser, who was an admirer of 
flowers ? I would not recommend the neglect of more 
important duties, for the culture of a flower-garden : yet 
when there is ability or leisure, and these may be found to 
a greater or less extent in almost every family, a taste for 
floral beauties should be inculcated in the young, not only 
as a source of rational pleasure, but as a salutary precau- 
tion against bad companions and bad habits. The mind 
must be employed, and must have recreation. It is bet- 
ter to direct it to the works of the Creator, than to the 
works of man. Lord Bacon has said of the garden, " It 
affords the purest of human pleasures — the greatest re- 
freshment to the spirits of man — without which, buildings 
and palaces are but gross handiworks." 

But I am forgetting myself. In my ardor to commend 
Horticulture, for its useful, elevating, and purifying influ- 
ence upon the habits and manners of society, I did not 
recollect that I am addressing the highly polished inhab- 



ADDRESS. 271 

itants of a classic city,* who have long since demonstrat- 
ed, in practice, the truth of the lessons I would inculcate. 
I will therefore dismiss this branch of my subject, and 
turn to the more rugged, though not less important, topic 
of x\griculture ; barely adding, — 

That in all endeavors to improve the condition of so- 
ciety, whether religious, moral, or industrial, individual 
efforts and example can effect but little ; and hence, that 
in every great work of reform or improvement, the con- 
centrated strength of many has been resorted to, and 
brought to a focus, by means of associations ; and that 
the great objects of society are not likely to be promoted 
in a more eminent degree, by any, than by associations 
formed for like purposes with those which I have now the 
honor to address. 

Being a native of this State, and having spent my early 
days within its borders, I can well remember the farming 
practices that were v/ont to prevail. The farm was, to 
use the commendatory language of that day, "suitably 
divided into meadow, pasture, and plough land," and each 
division was exclusively devoted to its object, until most 
of the nutritious grasses had " run out,^^ in the meadow, 
and the plough land had become too much impoverished 
to bear a remunerating crop. Many an acre was turned 
into '' old field,^'' or commons, destitute alike of natural 
or artificial herbage, affording scanty gleanings to half- 
famished cattle. I beg not to be misunderstood. I am 
describing what was a bad feature in Yankee husbandry. 
Farming has no doubt recently undergone great improve- 
ments in Connecticut, as it has elsewhere. Yet on a fair 
comparison with highly-cultivated agricultural districts, I 
believe that it will be found that the husbandry of this 
State, in the main, is susceptible of great improvement. 
The lands of Connecticut were originally rich and pro- 
ductive. The earthy elements remain in a great measure 
unchanged ; the seasons are about as propitious as they 
were wont to be ; and the lessons in improvement that 
have been taught elsewhere, leave little reason to doubt, 

* New Haven. 



272 ADDRESS. 

that under proper management, they may again be re- 
stored to their original fertility. 

In a late tour which 1 made through parts of New York 
and New Jersey, I found many evidences of recent im- 
provement, and I doubt not similar ones abound in my 
native State. In a part of Dutchess County, which I 
visited, the best farms have been sold, within my recol- 
lection, with improvements and buildings, at from seven 
to seventeen dollars an acre. They cannot now be 
bought for one hundred dollars an acre ; and one was 
sold last year at auction, without buildings, at one hun- 
dred and thirty dollars an acre. Fifteen years ago, a 
farm in western New York, of 400 acres, exhausted by 
bad husbandry, was bought by a Scotch farmer for 
$4000. This farm has been so improved by good hus- 
bandry, that the owner was last year oftered for it 
$40,000. He refused the offer, upon the ground, that 
it actually netted him the interest of $60,000, or $10 50 
the acre. A farm was pointed out to me in New Jer- 
sey, which was recently sold for seven dollars the acre, 
and that was all it was said to have been worth in its then 
condition. By a liberal outlay in draining, it being level 
and wet ground, and in liming, manuring, &c., it is now 
considered worth one hundred and twenty-five dollars an 
acre. I went over another farm which a few years ago 
was bought at the same price, and which now, on account 
of the improvements which have been made upon it, is 
considered worth one hundred dollars per acre. 1 am 
informed on the best authority, that similar cases of the 
rapid increase in the products and value of farms, conse- 
quent upon an improved system of management, are to 
be found in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. 
Although these cases are isolated ones, they nevertheless 
serve to show the practicability of vastly increasing the 
value and products of our exhausted lands. 

Among the causes which have essentially contributed 
to the deterioration of our lands, and the consequent 
depression of our Agriculture, 1 consider the following as 
prominent : 

Ignorance of the principles of Agriculture ; 



ADDRESS. 273 

The want of a sufficient outlay in the management of 
our farms ; and 

The low estimation in which the employment has been 
held by all classes, including farmers themselves. 

Agriculture has too generally been considered a busi- 
ness requiring mere physical power, with which the prin- 
ciples of natural science had little or nothing to do. To 
plough, sow, and gather the crop, has been the general 
routine of farming operations, regardless of the poverty 
which our practice was inflicting upon the soil and upon 
our children. Like the reckless heir of wealth, we found 
ourselves in possession of a treasure ; and without inquir- 
ing for what purpose it came into our hands, or realizing 
our obligations to husband and preserve it, for others, we 
have squandered it lavishly, tlirough our ignorance or our 
folly. True, we have been occasionally admonished of 
our error, by the schoolmen ; who, wrapped in abstract 
science, and knowing little practically of its application 
to husbandry, have as often tended to confuse and mysti- 
fy, as to enlighten and instruct. Hence the prejudice 
which has arisen, against book-farming. But science and 
art are now uniting their labors, and are deriving mutual aid 
from each other, on the farm, as they have for some time 
been doing in the manufactory and in the shop of the ar- 
tisan. A new era is dawning upon the vision of the far- 
mer ; a new light is illuming his path, and a new interest 
and new pleasures are urging him on to improvement. 
He begins to study the laws which Providence has or- 
dained for the government of improved culture, and he 
finds, in their application to his labors, the means of in- 
creasing profits and high intellectual enjoyment. And 
the more he studies and is guided by these laws, the more 
does he become satisfied of former errors, and of his 
comparatively hmited sphere of usefulness. Science is 
probably capable of rendering more important services to 
husbandry than to any other branch of labor, and presents 
a wider field of useful study to the cultivator of the soil, 
than to any other class of society. 

The deficiency in farming capital, or rather the stin- 
giness with which capital is employed in improving and 



274 ADDRESS. 

maintaining the condition of our lands, is another cause 
of declension in the profits and character of our Agricul- 
ture. The farmer is too prone to invest his surplus 
means in some new business, or in adding to his acres, 
instead of applying them to increase the profits of his la- 
bor and the products of his farm. He either works more 
land than he can work well and profitably, or he diverts 
to other objects the means which would yield a better 
return if applied to the improvement of the farm. He is 
apt to consider twenty or thirty dollars an enormous and 
wasteful outlay upon an acre of land, or upon a choice 
animal ; and yet the interest of this ouday will be ten 
times paid by the increase of crop or the increase of the 
animal ; and in most cases the principal also will be re- 
turned to him in the course of two or three years. Many 
of the most thriving farmers in southern New York, New 
Jersey, and Pennsylvania, make a quadrennial expenditure 
of twenty dollars or more to manure an acre ; and it has 
become a maxim with them, that the more the outlay for 
manure, the greater the net profit of their lands. But 
it is not the outlay for manure alone, that demands a lib- 
eral expenditure of capital. Good seed, good farm-stock, 
and good implements, are all essential to the economy of 
labor, and to neat and profitable farming. And I think 
it will appear from the cases I have quoted, that in many 
locations, capital may be very advantageously employed, 
in reclaiming wet and marshy grounds, generally rich and 
the most productive when laid dry. 

When our cattle grow lean, and threaten to disappoint 
our hopes of profit, we do not hesitate to impute the evil 
to the want of food, or to inattention in the herdsman. 
And if we are prudent managers, we at once graduate our 
Stock to our food, knowing that one well-fed animal is of 
more value in the market, than two animals that carry but 
skin and bones, and take care that the food is properly 
fed out. When our crops become lean, we need not 
hesitate to ascribe the decrease in product to like causes 
— want of food, or want of attention in the farmer ; and 
prudence and profit in like manner require, that our crops, 
like our animals, should be limited to the food and labor 



ADDRESS. 275 

which we have to bestow upon them. In other words, 
an acre well manured and well worked, will be found to 
be more profitable, than four poor acres badly worked. 

I may be here asked, whence are to be obtained 
the vast supplies of manure requisite to manure our old 
lands ? I answer, from a multiplicity of sources around 
us, from every animal and vegetable substance within our 
reach. Nothing that has once been part of an animal or 
a vegetable, but can be converted into corn, grass, and 
roots. I think I may assume as facts, that upon an aver- 
age, not half the manure is saved upon our farms that 
might be, and that this moiety is half lost before it is ap- 
plied to the soil. Every horse, ox, or cow, wintered upon 
the farm, if well fed, and littered with the straw, stalks, 
&c., of the crop, should make from six to ten cords of 
good manure. Dr. Coventry, late Professor of Agricul- 
ture at Edinburgh, estimated that the straw of an ordinary 
acre of grain, computed at 21 cwt., may be converted 
by the urine and liquids of the stables and cattle-yards, 
into three and a half tons of manure ; that meadows which 
cut one and a half tons of hay will give four tons of ma- 
nure ; clover, the first year, six tons, and the second year, 
five and a half tons per acre ; and that with the extraneous 
substances which may, with due care, be collected with- 
out expense from the roads, the ditches, the ponds, and 
from refuse of every kind about the house and premises, 
the acreable amount should be amply sufficient for a full 
supply of manure once during every course of the four- 
year system of husbandry. Arthur Young, with 6 horses, 
4 cows, and 9 hogs, which consumed 16 loads of hay and 
29 loads of straw, obtained 118 loads of manure, 36 
bushels to each ; and from 45 fatting oxen, well fed and 
littered, 600 tons of rotten manure. But an American 
lawyer,* and an excellent practical farmer withal, has 
gone beyond these estimates. I visited, a few weeks ago, 
his farm, which lies upon the sea-shore. It consists of 
about 200 acres, most of which was in a course of crops. 
The crops of the season had all received an ample supply 

* W. A. Seeley, Esq., of Staten Island. 



276 ADDRESS. 

of manure, as their appearance indicated ; and yet I was 
shown masses of well-prepared compost, in reserve, con- 
sisting of yard manure, peat ashes, peat earth, sea-weed, 
and fish — estimated at twenty-five hundred loads — all 
produced upon his own farm. 

The third obstacle to Agricultural improvement, which 
I propose to notice, is the subordinate rank to which this 
employment has been consigned, and to which the farmers 
themselves have contributed, by a want of respect for 
themselves and respect for their vocation. The whole- 
some habits of society have been so broken up, by the 
civil and political convulsions of the age, and the inordi- 
nate thirst for acquiring wealth and fashionable conse- 
quence, through mercantile and other speculations, that 
honest productive labor has been thrown entirely into the 
back-ground, and considered not only ungenteel, but me- 
nial and servile. Yet I venture to lay down this proposition, 
that he who provides for the wants and comforts of him- 
self and family, and renders some service to society at 
large, by his mental and physical industry, performs one 
of the high duties of life ; and will ultimately be rewarded 
in the conscious rectitude of his life, by a greater measure 
of substantial happiness, than he who makes millions by 
fraud and speculation, to be squandered in extravagance 
or wasted in folly, by his children or grandchildren. The 
revolutions which are constantly taking place in families, 
sufficiently admonish us, that it is not the wealth we leave 
to our children, but the industrial and moral habits in 
which we educate them, that secures to them worldly 
prosperity, and the treasure of an approving conscience. 

The farmers, I have remarked, share in the errors of 
the day. Not content with the gains which are ever the 
reward of prudent industry, and which might be greatly 
increased by the culture of the mind ; nor content with 
one of the most independent conditions in society, hun- 
dreds and thousands of them seek other and new employ- 
ments, and some of truly menial character, to get rid of 
labor, the greatest blessing to man, and to raise themselves 
in the imaginary scale of fashionable society. And if 
they cannot participate, themselves, in this imaginary 



ADDRESS. 277 

greatness, (and it is seldom any thing more than imagina- 
ry,) they are anxious to inflict the evil upon their posterity, 
— to rear their sons to the law, the rail-road to office, to 
political power, and turmoil ; to make them merchants, a 
useful, but greatly over-stocked business, or to place them 
in some other genteel employment, which shall exempt 
them from the toils of labor, the salt that best preserves 
from moral corruption. 

Mistaken men ! What class in society have within 
their reach so many of the elements of human enjoyments 
— so many facilities for dispensing benefits to others, 
one of the first duties and richest pleasures of fife — as the 
independent tillers of the soil ? " The farmer," says 
Franklin, " has no need of popular favor ; the success 
of his crops depends only on the blessing of God upon 
his honest industry." If discreetly conducted on the im- 
proved principles of husbandry. Agriculture offers the cer- 
tain means of acquiring wealth, and as rapidly as is con- 
sistent with the pure enjoyments of life, or with the good 
order and prosperous condition of society. Agriculture 
is the golden mean, secure alike from the temptations of 
mushroom opulence, and the craven sycophancy and de- 
pendance of poverty. "Give me neither poverty nor 
riches," was the prayer of the wise man of Scripture, 
"lest," he added, "• I be full and deny thee, and say, who 
is the Lord ? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the 
name of my God in vain." 

When we consider that Agriculture is the great business 
of the nation — of mankind ; that its successful prosecu- 
tion depends upon a knowledge in the cultivators of the 
soil, of the principles of natural science, — and that our 
Agriculture stands in special need of this auxiliary aid, — 
we cannot withhold our surprise and regret, that we have 
not long since established professional schools, in which 
our youth, or such of them as are designed to manage this 
branch of national labor, might be taught, simultaneously, 
the principles and practice of their future business of life, 
and on which, more than any other branch of business, 
the fortunes of our country, moral, political, and national, 
essentially depend. We require an initiatory study of 
24 XIII. 



278 ADDRESS. 

years in the principles of law and medicine, before we 
permit the pupil to practise in these professions. We 
require a like preliminary study in our military and naval 
schools, in the sciences of war and navigation, ere the 
student is deemed qualified to command. And yet, in 
Agriculture, by which, under the blessing of Providence, 
we virtually '' live, and move, and have our being," and 
which truly embraces a wider range of useful science than 
either law, medicine, war, or navigation, we have no 
schools, we give no instruction, we bestow no govern- 
mental patronage. Scientific knowledge is deemed indis- 
pensable in many minor employments of life ; but in this 
great business, in which its influence would be most potent 
and useful, we consider it, judging from our practice, of 
less consequence than the fictions of the novehst. We 
regard mind as the efficient power in most other pursuits ; 
while we forget, that in Agriculture, it is the Archimedean 
lever, which, though it does not move, tends to fill a. world 
with plenty, with moral health, and human happiness. 
Can it excite surprise, that under these circumstances of 
gross neglect. Agriculture should have become among us, 
in popular estimation, a clownish and ignoble employ- 
ment .'' 

In the absence of Agricultural professional schools, 
could we not do much to enlighten and raise the charac- 
ter of American husbandry, by making its principles a 
branch of study in our district schools ? This knowledge 
would seldom come amiss, and it would often prove a 
ready help ujider misfortune, to those who had failed in 
other business. What man is there, who may not ex- 
pect, at some time of life, to profit directly by a knowl- 
edge of these principles ? Who does not hope to become 
the owner, or cultivator, of a garden, or a farm ? And 
what man, enjoying the blessing of health, would be at a 
loss for the means of an honest livelihood, whose mind 
had been early imbued with the philosophy of rural cul- 
ture — and who would rather work than beg ? 

An early acquaintance with natural science is calculated 
to beget a taste for rural life and rural labors, as a source 
of pleasure, profit, and honor. It will stimulate to the 



ADDRESS. 279 

improvement of the mind, — to elevate and to purify it, — 
to self-respect, to moral deportment. And it will tend 
to deter from the formation of bad habits, which steal 
upon the ignorant and the idle unawares, and which con- 
sign thousands of young men to poverty and disgrace, if 
not to premature graves. A knowledge of these princi- 
ples, to a very useful extent, can be acquired with as 
much facility in the school, or upon the farm, as other 
branches of learning. Why, then, shall they not be 
taught ? Why shall we withhold from our Agricultural 
population that knowledge which is so indispensable to 
their profit, to their independence, and to their correct 
bearing as freemen ? Why, while we boast of our supe- 
rior privileges, keep in comparative ignorance of their 
business, that class of our citizens who are truly the con- 
servators of our freedom ? I know of but one objection, 
— the want of teachers. A few years ago, civil engineers 
were not to be found among us. The demand for them 
created a supply. We have demonstrated that we have 
the materials for civil engineers, and that we can work 
them up. We have materials for teachers of Agricultural 
science, which we can also work up. Demand will al- 
ways insure a supply. 

The enumeration of the foregoing obstacles to Agricul- 
tural improvement, sufficiently indicates the means which 
will be efficient in removing them. The means consist, 
so far as I now propose to notice them — 

1. In giving a professional education to the young far- 
mer, which shall embrace the principles and the practice 
of the business which he is designed to follow in life ; and, 

2. In diffusing, more extensively, among those who 
have completed their juvenile studies, and are better fitted 
to profit by the lessons of wisdom and experience, a 
knowledge of the same principles, and of the best modes 
of practice which these principles inculcate, and which 
experience has proved to be sound. 

We have professional schools in almost every business 
of life, except in the cultivation of the soil, one of the 
most important and essential of them all, and one em- 
bracing a larger scope of useful study in natural science. 



280 ADDRESS. 

and in usefulness to the temporal wants of the human 
family, than any other. The policy of monarchs, and of 
privileged orders, has been to repress intelligence in the 
Agricultural mass, in order to keep them in a subordinate 
station. But neither the policy nor the practice should 
be countenanced by us. Our Agriculturists are our 
privileged class, if we have such. They are our sover- 
eigns, because, from their superior numbers, they must 
ever control our pohtical destinies, for good or for evil. 
And the more intelligent and independent we can render 
them, the more safe we make our country from the con- 
vulsions of internal feuds, and the danger of foreign war. 
I put the question to fathers — Would you esteem that 
son less, or think him less likely to fulfil the great duties 
of life, who had been educated in a professional school 
of Agriculture, with all the high qualifications which it 
would confer for public and domestic usefulness, than him 
\vho had been educated for the counter, the bar, or other 
high professional callings ? On which could you best 
rely for support and comfort in the decline of life ? Nay, 
I will venture to carry the appeal further — to the dis- 
criminating judgement of the unmarried lady — Would you 
reject, as a partner for fife, the student of such a college, 
coming forth whh a sound mind, deeply imbued with 
useful knowledge, and a hale constitution, invigorated by 
manly exercise, whose cares and affections were hkely 
to be concentrated upon home and country, and whose 
precepts and examples would tend to diffuse industry, 
prosperity, and rural happiness around him ? The fa- 
ther's response would be, I think, an unhesitating no, to 
the first question ; and the lady's, after due deliberation, 
I verily suspect, would be a half articulate amen ! I 
pretend not to the spirit of prophecy, yet I venture to 
predict, that many who now hear me, will live to see pro- 
fessional schools of Agriculture estabhshed in our land, to 
see their utihty extolled, and to be induced to consider 
them the best nurseries for repubhcan virtues, and the 
surest guaranty for the perpetuity of our liberties. They 
should be established — they will be established — and the 
sooner they are estabhshed, the better for our country. 



ADDRESS. 281 

To those who have passed to manhood, and who have 
made up their mmds, from necessity or from choice, to 
till the ground, the means of improvement — of studying 
the principles of their business, and of becoming acquaint- 
ed with the most approved and modern practices in hus- 
bandry — the opportunities of acquiring useful knowledge, 
are abundant and cheap. One of these means, and a 
valuable one, is proffered him through the exhibitions and 
publications of these societies. Another is the perusal of 
books upon Agriculture and rural economy, which should 
form a part of social and rural hbraries. And another 
facility of acquiring this useful knowledge, is afforded by 
the Agricultural periodicals of our country, which, besides 
containing much that is instructive in the philosophy of 
farming, are a record of the best modes of practice, and 
of much that is new and important, in the various depart- 
ments of rural and household labor. A volume of the 
Cultivator, of which 1 can speak with accuracy, contains 
about as much matter as five or six volumes of the popu- 
lar novels of the day, and twice as much as four numbers 
of our literary quarterly journals. The price of the Cul- 
tivator is one dollar per annum. I verily think, that if 
the farmer would divide his patronage between political 
and Agricultural journals, he would be a manifest gainer, 
in his fortune and in his family — would be more happy in 
his business, and domestic in his habits — a better mana- 
ger, and a more useful citizen. 

Time will not permit me to go into the details of mod- 
ern improvements in husbandry. These improvements 
are great, and afford the brightest hopes to the philan- 
thropist and the patriot. No one who can carry back his 
memory forty years, can withhold his wonder at the as- 
tonishing improvements which have in that time been 
made in the manufacturing and mechanic arts, by reason 
of the aids of science ; and those who can scan the future, 
will have no less reason to rejoice, in the anticipated ad- 
vantages which are in prospect, from an improved culture 
of the mind and the soil, consequent upon a better system 
of education to the agricultural population, and the gen- 
24* 



282 ADDRESS. 

eral diffusion of useful knowledge, which is likely to re- 
sult from it. 

I will merely further remark to the farmer, that if he 
would prosper in his business, he should study, practise, 
and adopt, the better system of husbandry which is abroad 
in the land, and which has already greatly profited thou- 
sands, so far as his soil and circumstances will permit ; 
that he should drain his wet lands, economize his manures, 
and apply them with judgement ; cultivate well, what he 
does cultivate ; alternate his crops ; extend his root 
culture ; increase and improve his stock, as the products 
of his farm will permit ; and substitute fallow crops for 
naked fallows. 

In conclusion, gentlemen, permit me to express my 
hearty wish, that success and honor may crown your ef- 
forts to improve the condition of your country, industrial 
and moral, associate benefits almost as intimately con- 
nected as cause and effect ; and that you may long live 
to enjoy the blessings which are promised to him who 
truly loves his neighbor, and reveres and worships his God. 



APPENDIX. 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 

MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS. 

If the square of the diameter of a circle be multiplied 
by .7854, the product is the area. If the diameter of a 
sphere be cubed and multiplied by .6236, the product is 
the solidity ; and the square of the diameter, multiplied by 
3.14159, is the surface of the sphere. 

To find the contents of a cask, add double the square 
of the bung diameter to the square of the head diameter, 
and multiply this sum by the head of the cask ; then divide 
the product by 1,077 for ale gallons of 280 cT^ibic inches 
each, or by 882 for wine gallons of 231 cubic inches each. 

Quincunx is one at each of four corners, and one in the 
middle, thus, : • : 

The convexity of the earth interposes to prevent the 
sight of distant bodies. Thus, at 600 yards, one inch 
would be concealed, or an object one inch high would not 
be seen in a straight line ; at 900 yards, two inches ; at 
1,400 yards, five inches ; at one mile, eight inches ; three 
miles, six feet ; four miles, ten feet ; five miles, sixteen 
feet ; six miles, twenty-four feet ; ten miles, sixty-six feet ; 
twelve miles, ninety-five feet ; thirteen miles, one hundred 
and twelve feet, and fourteen miles, one hundred and thir- 
ty feet. 

The mechanical powers may be reduced to three, but they 
are usually expressed as six — the lever, the wheel and axle, 
the pulley, the inclined plane, the screw, and the wedge. 

In a single moveable pulley, the power gained is double. 
In a continued combination, the power is twice the num- 
ber of pulleys, less 1. 

In levers, the power is reciprocally as the lengths are 
each side of the fulcrum or centre of motion, as illustrated 
in the steelyard. 



284 APPENDIX. 

The power gained in the wheel and axle is as the radius 
of the wheel to that of the axle. 

The power gained by an inclined plane is as the length 
to the height. 

The power of the wedge is generally as the length to 
the thickness of the back. 

The power of the screw is as the circumference to the 
distance of the thread, or as 6.2832 to that distance. 

Resistance is an affair of experiment, sometimes a third, 
and at other times less. 

The friction of cylinders or wheels is as the pressure, 
and inversely as the diameter. 

The least friction is when polished iron moves on brass. 

The area of a circle is the product of the diameter and 
circumference, divided by 4. 

A fall of one tenth of an inch per mile, will produce a 
motion in rivers. The greatest velocity is at the surface 
and in the middle, and the least at the bottom and sides. 
But as the velocity increases, the action on the sides and 
bottom increases also. 

Eclipses return in the very same order every 18 years 
and 1 1 days, supposing four leap years in the interval, and 
if five, then every 10 days. Other cycles of motion, how- 
ever, vary the phenomenon or measure. The moon's shad- 
ow is less than 170 miles broad ; but the eclipse, in de- 
gree, for 2,000 miles. 

A pump ten feet above a well, with seven inches bore, 
will discharge 70 gallons a minute ; and at 30 feet 4 inches, 
23 gallons. 

The specific gravity of water being 1 .000, that of al- 
cohol, pure, is 0.829 ; beer, 1.034 ; cider, 1.018 ; milk, 
1.032; linseed oil, 0.94; vinegar, 1.025; sea-water, 
1.026; ox bone, 1.666; brass, 7.824; brick, 2.; cork, 
0.24; gold, 19.2587; granite, 2.728 ; bar iron, 7.68; lead, 
11.352; lignum-vitae, 1.33; mahogany, 1.06; marble, 
2.716 ; mercury, 13.58 ; oak, 1.17 ; platina, 20.722 ; sil- 
ver, 10.474; clay-slate, 2.67; tin, 10.717, limestone, 
1.386 ; elm, 0.671 ; honey, 1.45. — Treasury ojf Knowledge. 

MEASURES OF LENGTH. 

Measures of length are the distance of one object from 
another, according to some agreed standard. 

A line is the twelfth of an inch, and the 144th of a foot. 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 



2S5 



A geometrical pace is 4.4 feet English ; and an English 
mile contains 1,200 paces, or 1,760 yards, or 5,280 feet. 

A Scotch mile contains 1,500 paces ; a German mile 
4,000 ; a Swedish and Danish mile 5,000 ; the Russian 
mile 750. 

A hand, used in measuring the height of horses, is 4 
inches. 

A surveyor's chain is 4 poles, or 66 feet, divided into 
100 links of 7.92 inches. A square chain is 16 poles, and 
10 square chains are an acre. 640 square acres are a 
square mile ; and 4,840 square yards are an acre, 69.58 
yards each way. 

The Irish acre is 7,840 square yards. 

The Scotch acre is 1.27 English. 

A French arpent is ^ of an English acre. 

121 Irish acres are equal to 196 English. 

48 Scotch acres are equal to 61 English. 

11 Irish miles are equal to 14 English. 

80 Scotch miles are equal to 91 Enghsh. 

A sea league is 3.4536 miles, or the 20th of a degree. 
6,078 feet are a sea mile. 

A degree at the equator is 365,101 feet, or 69.148 miles, 
or 69^ nearly. In latitude 66° 20', Maupertuis meas- 
ured a degree of latitude, in 1737, and made it 69.403 ; 
and Swanberg, in 1803, made it 69.292. At the equator, 
in 1744, four astronomers made it 68.732 ; and Lambton, in 
1803, latitude 12°, 68.743. Mudge, in England, made it 
69.148. Cassini, in France, in 1718 and 1740, made it 
69.12, and Biot, 68.769 ; while a recent measure in Spain, 
makes it but 68.63, which is less than at the equator, and 
contradicts all the others, proving the earth to be a prolate 
spheroid, which was the opinion of Cassini, Bernouilli, 
Euler, and others, while it has more generally been re- 
garded as an oblate spheroid. 

Degrees of longitude are to each other in length, as the 
cosines of their latitudes. For every 10° they are as fol- 
lows : — 



Equator, 
10° 
20° 
30° 
40° 



.69.2 

.68.15 

.65.27 

.59.93 

.53.1 



50° 44.48 

55° 39.69 

60° 34.6 

70° 23.67 

80° 12.02 



The pendulum which vibrates seconds, 39.1393 inches 



286 



APPENDIX. 



at London, is the standard for the British measures, 
mile is equal to 1,618.833 such pendulums. 



One 



WEIGHTS. 

The standard of weights, is, the cubic inch of distilled 
water, weighing 253.458 Troy grains ; the Troy pound, 
5,760 grains, or 22.8157 inches. The same standard of 
7,000 Troy grains, makes the pound avoirdupois, 27.7274 
cubic inches ; ten of which, or 277.274, being the impe- 
rial gallon, or a quart 69.32 ; and a gill of five ounces of 
water, equal to 8.664. 

The American quintal is 100 pounds. 

The weight of a cubic inch of distilled water, in a vac- 
uum, is 252.722 grains, and in air, is 252.458 grains. 

The Turkish pound is 7,578 grains ; the Danish, 6,941 ; 
the Irish, 7,774; the Neapolitan, 4,952; the Scotch, pound 
Troy, 7,620.8. 

A cubic foot of loose earth or sand weighs 95 pounds. 

A cubic foot of common soil weighs 124 pounds. 



strong soil. 




127 


clay. 




135 


mason's work. 




205 


distilled water, 




62.5 ' 


cast iron, 




450.45 ' 


steel. 




489.8 ' 


lead. 




709.5 ' 


platina. 




1,218.75 ' 


copper. 




486.75 ' 


cork, 




15 


tallow, 




59 


oak. 




73.15 ' 


brick, 




125 


air, 




0.0753 ' 



MEASURES OF CAPACITY. 

Measure is length, breadth, and thickness, estimated by 
known lengths, or compared by other known quantities ; 
thus, there are 12X12X12^1,728 cubic inches in a cu- 
bic foot, and 3X3X3=27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. 

The imperial gallon is 277.274 cubic inches. A gill, or 
quarter of a pint, is 8| inches. 

The imperial gallon contains 10 lbs. avoirdupois, of dis- 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 287 

tilled water, weighed in air at 62°, with the barometer at 
30 inches. Two gallons are equal to a peck, eight to a 
bushel, and eight bushels to a quarter. 

Heaped measure, per bushel, is 2,8 15J cubic inches 
clear. 

The Winchester bushel is 18 J inches in diameter, and 
8 inches deep, containing 2,154.42 cubic inches. 

1,000 ounces of rain-water are equal to about 7| gallons 
wine measure, or to a cubic foot. 

7 pounds avoirdupois is a gallon of flour. 

A chaldron of coals is 58 1 cubic feet. 

Twelve wine gallons of distilled water, weigh 100 lbs. 
avoirdupois. 

The imperial dry bushel, when not heaped, is 2,218.192 
cubic inches ; the peck, 554.548 ; gallon, 277.274, and 
quart, 69.3185. The bushel is 8 inches deep, and 18.8 
wide, with a heap 6 inches high. • 

A bushel of wheat is 60 lbs., rye, 53 lbs., barley, 47 lbs., 
oats, 38, peas, 64, beans, 63, clover-seed, 68, rape, 48 lbs. 

A Scotch pint is equal to four English pints. 

A Scotch quart is 208.6 cubic inches. 

There are 545,267,000 cubic yards in a cubic mile. 

INTERESTING FACTS IN CHEMISTRY. 

Chemistry is the study of the effects of heat and mix- 
ture, with the view of discovering their general and subor- 
dinate laws, and of improving the useful arts. — Black. 

Whenever chemical action takes place, a real change 
is produced in the substance operated upon, and its iden- 
tity is destroyed. If a little powdered chalk (carbonate 
of lime) be put into a glass of water, the chalk will sink to 
the bottom of the vessel. Though it should be mixed with 
the water, if left at rest it will soon subside ; no chemical 
action has taken place ; therefore the water and the car- 
bonate of lime both remain unaltered. But if a small quan- 
tity of diluted sulphuric acid be added to a glass of chalk 
and water, a violent effervescence will commence the rpo- 
ment they come in contact with each other ; a chemical 
unionof the two substances will be the consequence of this 
chemical action ; the identity of each substance will be 
destroyed, and sulphate of lime, or gypsum (a body very 
different from either of the substances employed) will be 
produced. 



288 APPENDIX. 

Heat has a tendency to separate the particles of all 
bodies from each other. Hence nothing more is necessary 
to effect the decomposition of many bodies than to apply 
heat, and collect the substances which are separated by 
that means. 

It is evident that water exists in the atmosphere in 
abundance, even in the driest season, and under the clear- 
est sky. There are substances which have the power of 
absorbing moisture from the air, at all times, such as the 
fixed alkalies, (potash and soda,) and sulphuric acid, the 
latter of which will soon absorb more than its own weight 
of water from the air, when exposed to it. Fresh-burnt 
lime absorbs it rapidly ; and earth that has been freshly 
stirred absorbs it in a much greater degree, at night, than 
that which is crusted and compact. Hence the impor- 
tance of stirring the soil among tillage crops, in time of 
drought. 

Bishop Watson found, that even when there had been 
no rain for a considerable time, and the earth was dried 
by the parching heat of summer, it still gave out a consid- 
erable quantity of water. By inverting a large drinking- 
glass on a close-mown grass plat, and collecting the vapor 
which attached to the inside of the glass, he found that an 
acre of ground dispersed into the air about 1,600 gallons 
of water in the space of twelve hours, of a summer's day. 

Lavoisier has explained solidity thus: "The parti- 
cles of all bodies," says he, " may be considered as sub- 
ject to the action of two opposite powers, repulsion and 
attraction, between which they remain in equilibrio. So 
long as the attractive force remains stronger, the body must 
continue in a state of solidity ; but if, on the contrary, heat 
has so far removed these particles from each other as to 
place them beyond the sphere of attraction, they lose the 
cohesion they before had with each other, and the body 
ceases to be solid." 

Aeriform substances (gases and vapors) are called 
elastic, because they are all capable of being reduced into 
a smaller compass by pressure, and of expanding again to 
their usual volume whenever the pressure is removed. 
Thus atmospheric air may be so compressed, that 128 
volumes may be forced into a space usually occupied by 
one volume, and the greater the compression the more will 
its elasticity be increased. It is on this principle that the 
air-gun is constructed. — Parke. 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 289 

Fluidity is owing to the matter of heat being interposed 
between the particles of the fluid ; which heat would dis- 
sipate all fluids into the air, were it not for the pressure of 
the atmosphere, and the mutual attraction which subsists 
between those particles. Were it not for this atmospheric 
pressure, water would not be known in any other states 
than those of ice and vapor ; for, as soon as ice had ac- 
quired caloric enough to give it fluidity, it would evaporate, 
and be dispersed into the regions of space. This may be 
proved by direct experiment. The constitution of the- 
world in this respect exhibits a beautiful instance of the 
harmony of Nature, and of the exquisite contrivance of its 
Divine Author. 

On the other hand, could we totally abstract the matter 
of heat from any fluid, no doubt this fluid would by that 
means be changed to a solid, the lightest vapors being 
nothing more than solids combined with heat. Not only 
fluids, but all those substances which are soft and ductile, 
owe their properties to the chemical combination of caloric. 
Metals owe their malleability and ductility to the same 
cause ; for in very intense artificial cold, the most ductile 
metals, such as gold, silver, and lead, lose their malleabil- 
ity, and become brittle, as Van Mons has shown. — An- 
nals de Cliimie. 

Take, for instance, mercury. This metal is a fluid body 
in our climate, but by cooling it to 30 degrees below the 
zero of Fahrenheit's thermometer, it becomes solid ; and 
if it be heated to 660 degrees, it will be volatilized and 
converted into vapor. 

The elasticity of air and steam arises from the caloric 
being chemically combined with the solid substances of 
which they are composed. I say solid, because we have 
abundant evidence that oxygen and nitrogen [the principal 
elements of the atmosphere] are both capable of taking a 
solid form, and actually do, in many instances, exist in a 
state of solidity. Nitrogen is a component part of all ani- 
mal substances, and exists in a solid state in all the ammoni- 
acal salts. Oxygen takes the same state when it combines 
with metals and other combustibles ; and in the composi- 
tion of the nitrous salts, they both take the same state of 
solidity. These facts surely evince that atmospheric air 
owes its fluidity to caloric. — Parke. 

Whenever a body changes its state, it either combines 
with caloric, or separates from caloric. — Dr. Black. 
25 XIII. 



290 APPENDIX. 

It is an axiom in hydrostatics, that every substance which 
sivims on water, displaces so much of the water as is ex- 
actly equal to its own weight ; whereas, when a substance 
sinks in water, it displaces water equal to its bulk. Take 
a piece of hard wood, balance it accurately in a pair of 
scales with water, and then place it gently in a vessel on 
the surface of water which will flow over the top of the ves- 
sel. If the wood be now taken out with care, it will be 
found that the water in the scale will exactly fill the va- 
cancy left by the wood. — lb. 

The specific gravity of bodies is denoted in chemical 
writings by comparing it with the specific gravity of pure 
water, in decimal figures, water being always considered 
as 1.000. Thus the specific gravity of the strongest sul- 
phuric acid (oil of vitriol) is 1.850, or nearly nine tenths 
heavier than water. Iron is 7.650, or more than Tj times 
heavier than water ; that is, a cubic inch of iron, if put 
into a scale, would require 7| inches of water to balance 
it ; silver is 10.470 ; gold 19.300 ; and platina 23.000, or 
23 times heavier than water. 

All substances that float upon water are specifically 
lighter than it, as oils, alcohol, &c. There are various 
instruments which, when dropped into liquids, indicate, 
upon a graduated scale, their specific gravity, be it heavi- 
er or lighter than water, as the areometer, hydrometer, 
8lc. Thus the juice of the apple or grape is heavier than 
water in proportion to the quantity of sugar which it con- 
tains ; and after fermentation, it becomes specifically 
lighter than water in the same ratio, the sugar, which 
was heavier, being converted into alcohol, which is lighter 
than water. The tendency of wine or cider to run into 
the acetous or vinegar fermentation, is in proportion to its 
lightness before, and heaviness after fermentation — the 
lighter the must, the heavier the liquor, and the less sugar 
in the former, and less alcohol in the latter. The specific 
gravity of apple-juice varies from 1.000 to 1.091. Some 
we lately tried, from mixed fruit, indicated 1.063 by Bau- 
me's areometer. — Co7i. 

A pint measure of atmospheric air weighs nearly nine 
grains ; whereas a pint measure of hydrogen gas weighs 
little more than half a grain. The same measure of pure 
water weighs upwards of one pound avoirdupois. 

It may be remarked, that the Creator has endowed at- 
mospheric air with the property of preserving its own 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 291 

equilibrium at all times, and in all places. Its elasticity 
is such, that, however it may be consumed by respiration 
or combustion, its place is immediately supplied with a new 
portion, and though, by a mistaken policy, the doors and 
windows of our habitations may be constructed so as to 
exclude it as much as possible, it will have admission ; it 
forces its way through every crevice, and performs the 
important office assigned it, in defiance of all exertions. — 
Parke. 

PHILOSOPHICAL FACTS. 

The change of properties which takes place when chem- 
ical attraction acts, is not confined to metals, but is a gener- 
al result in every case, where different bodies are brought 
into this state of combination or chemical union. Fre- 
quently we find that the properties of each body are totally 
changed ; and that substances, from being energetic and 
violent in their nature, become inert and harmless, and vice 
versa. For instance, that useful and agreeable substance, 
culinary salt, which is not only harmless, but wholesome, 
and absolutely necessary to the well-being of man, is com- 
posed of two formidable ingredients, either of which taken 
into the stomach proves fatal to life : one of these is a met- 
al, and the other an air ; the former is called sodium, the 
latter chlorine. When presented to each other, the vio- 
lence of their nature is manifested by their immediately 
bursting out into flame, and instantly they are both deprived 
of their virulence. Can any thing be more striking than 
the change of properties in this case ? and who could have 
supposed that culinary salt is composed of a metal united 
to an air ? The medicine called Glauber's salts is another 
instance ; it is composed of two caustic poisons of differ- 
ent kinds ; one called oil of vitriol, and the other barilla 
or soda. There are also two substances known to chem- 
ists, which are disgustingly bitter liquids ; one is called 
nitrate of silver, and the other hyposulphate of soda ; when 
mixed they form a compound of considerable sweetness. 
But the atmosphere which we breathe is the most extraor- 
dinary of all instances : it must be surprising to those who 
are unacquainted with the fact, that atmospheric air, indis- 
pensable as it is to life, is composed of the same ingredi- 
ents as that most violent and destructive liquid called aqua 
fords, or nitric acid. This powerful acid being made to 



292 



APPENDIX. 



act upon sugar, the sweetest of all things, produces a sub- 
stance intensely bitter to the taste. Charcoal is, of all 
known substances, the most difficult to convert into vapor ; 
so much so, indeed, that the conversion has never yet 
been decidedly effected ; it is also a very solid substance ; 
and diamond, which is nothing but crystallized charcoal, is 
one of the hardest bodies in Nature. Sulphur, in the solid 
state, is also a hard substance, and to hold it in vapor re- 
quires a high temperature. But when these two substan- 
ces, carbon and sulphur, are made to combine chemically 
so as to form the substance called bisulphuret of carbon, 
their properties are strikingly changed. Instead of the 
compound being hard, it is a thin liquid, and is not known 
to freeze or solidify at any degree of cold that can be 
produced. Instead of the compound being difficult to va- 
porize, it is, of all liquids, one of the most evaporable. 
Charcoal is the blackest substance with which we are ac- 
quainted — sulphur is of a most lively yellow hue ; but the 
compound is as colorless as water. A new smell and taste 
are acquired, and, in a word, there is not one point of re- 
semblance with the constituents. These facts are strikingly 
illustrative of the change of properties which follows on the 
exertion of chemical attraction between the ultimate parti- 
cles of bodies. — Donovan's Chemistry. 



O (H 



S =3 S 
^ "" 5 



10 

20 
30 
40 
50 
60 
70 
80 
90 
100 



JVumher of bushels of marl necessary to give one per 
cent, of carbonate of lime to an acre, for a ploughed 
depth of soil of 



3 inches. 



875 
437 
291 
218 
175 
145 
125 
109 
97 
87 



4 inches. 


5 inches. 


6 inches. 


7 inches. 


1166 


1458 


1750 


2041 


583 


729 


875 


1020 


388 


486 


583 


680 


281 


364 


437 


510 


233 


291 


350 


409 


194 


242 


291 


340 


180 


208 


250 


291 


145 


182 


218 


255 


129 


162 


194 


226 


116 


145 


175 


204 



8 inches. 

2833 
1166 
777 
583 
466 
388 
333 
291 
259 
233 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 



293 



Breadths and Lengths of an Acre, in rods or perches and feet. 



Breadth. 


Length. 


Breadth. 


Length. 


Perches. 


Perches. Feet. 


Perches. 


Perches. Feet. 


10 


16 


28 


5 \\\i 


11 


14 . 9 


29 


5 Hi 


12 


13 51 


30 


5 51 


13 


12 5tV 


31 


5 2|| 


14 


11 7-j.V 


32 


5 


15 


10 11 


33 


4 14 


16 


10 


34 


4 nil 


17 


9 6f|- 


35 


4 9f 


18 


8 14| 


36 


4 7i 


19 


8 6i| 


37 


4 5if 


20 


8 


38 


4 3t^ 


21 


7 ^0^ 


39 


4 lA 


22 


^ 41 


40 


4 


23 


6 15^1 


41 


3 14f| 


24 


6 11 


42 


3 13^ 


25 


6 6} 


43 


3 ll^i 


26 


6 2/^ 


44 


3 101 


27 


5 15,-V 


45 


3 9i 



Comparison of the American with the Scotch and Irish Acre. 



American. 


Scotch. 


Irish. 


Acre. 


Acres. 


Roods. 


Perches. 


Acres. 


Roods. 


Perches. 


1 





3 


14.4 





2 


18.7 


2 


1 


2 


28.9 


1 





35.5 


3 


2 


2 


17.3 


1 


3 


16.3 


4 


3 


1 


17.8 


2 


1 


35.1 


5 


4 





32.2 


3 





13.8 


6 


5 





6.7 


3 


2 


32.6 


7 


5 


3 


21.1 


4 


1 


11.4 


8 


6 


2 


35.5 


4 


3 


30.2 


9 


7 


2 


10 


6 





27.7 


10 


8 


1 


24.4 


6 





27.7 


20 


16 


3 


8.9 


12 


1 


15.5 


30 


25 


3 


33.3 


18 


2. 


3.2 


40 


33 


2 


17.8 


24 


2 


2.1 



25* 



294 



APPENDIX. 



A Table, to show at a glance the number of hills or..plants 
each other, from 40 feet by 40, 



Feet. 


Feet. 1 


Per acre. 


Feet. Feet. ( 


Per acre, i 


Ft. In. 


Ft. In., 


Per acre. 


40 by 40 1 


27 


16 by 


15 


175 


8 by 8 , 


680 


39 . 


. 39 


28 


16 . . 


10 


272 


8 0. 


. 7 


777 


38 . 


. 38 


30 


16 . . 


5 


544 


8 . 


. 6 


905 


37 . 


. 37 


31 


15 . . 


15 


193 


8 . 


. 5 


1089 


36 . 


. 36 


33 


15 . . 


10 


290 


8 0. 


. 4 


1361 


35 . 


. 35 


35 


15 . . 


5 


580 


8 0. 


.3 


1815 


34 . 


. 34 


37 


14 . . 


14 


222 


8 . 


.2 


2722 


33. 


. 33 


40 


14 . . 


10 


311 


8 . 


. 1 


5445 


32 . 


. 32 


42 


14 . . 


5 


622 


7 . 


. 7 


888 


31 . 


. 31 


45 


13 . 


13 


257 


7 . 


. 6 6 


957 


30. 


. 30 


48 


13 . 


10 


335 


7 . 


. 6 


1037 


29 . 


. 29 


51 


13 . 


5 


670 


7 . 


. 5 6 


1131 


28 . 


. 28 


55 


12 . 


12 


302 


7 0. 


. 5 


1244 


27 . 


. 27 


59 


12 . 


10 


363 


7 0. 


. 4 6 


1382 


26 . 


. 26 


64 


12 . 


5 


720 


7 0. 


. 4 


1555 


25. 


. 25 


69 


11 . 


11 


360 


7 0. 


. 3 6 


1777 


24 . 


. 24 


75 


11 . 


10 


396 


7 . 


. 3 


2074 


23 . 


. 23 


82 


11 . 


5 


792 


7 0. 


.2 6 


2489 


22 . 


.22 


90 


10 . 


10 


435 


7 . 


.2 


3111 


21 . 


. 21 


98 


10 . 


9 


484 


7 . 


. 1 6 


4148 


20 . 


. 20 


108 


10. 


8 


544 


7 . 


. 1 


6222 


20 . 


. 15 


145 


10. 


7 


622 


6 0. 


. 6 


1210 


20. 


. 10 


217 


10 . 


6 


726 


6 . 


. 5 6 


1320 


20 . 


. 5 


435 


10. 


5 


871 


6 0. 


.5 


1452 


19 . 


. 19 


120 


10. 


4 


1089 


6 . 


. 4 6 


1613 


19 . 


. 15 


152 


10. 


. 3 


1452 


6 . 


. 4 


1815 


19 . 


. 10 


229 


10. 


2 


2178 


6 0. 


. 3 6 


2074 


19 . 


. 5 


458 


10. 


1 


4356 


6 0. 


. 3 


2420 


18 . 


. 18 


134 


9 . 


. 9 


537 


6 0. 


. 2 6 


2904 


18 . 


. 15 


161 


9 . 


. 8 


605 


6 0. 


. 2 


3630 


18 . 


. 10 


242 


9 . 


. 7 


691 


6 0. 


. 1 6 


4840 


18 . 


. 5 


484 


9 . 


6 


806 


6 0. 


. 1 


7260 


17 . 


. 17 


150 


9 . 


. 5 


968 


>5 6 . 


. 5 6 


1417 


17 . 


. 15 


170 


9 . 


. 4 


1210 


5 6 . 


. 5 


1584 


17 . 


. 10 


256 


9 . 


. 3 


1613 


5 6 . 


. 4 6 


1760 


17 


. 5 


512 


9 . 


. 2 


2420 


5 6 . 


. 4 


1980 


16 


. 16 


170 


9 . 


. 1 


4840 


5 6 . 


. 3 6 


2272 



COLLECTIONS OF FACTS. 



295 



contained in 
to 1 foot bij 



an acre of land, at any 
1 , omitting fractions. 



given distance from 



Ft. In. 


Ft. In. 


Per acre 


Ft. In. 


Ft. In. 


Per acre. 


Ft. In. 


Ft. In. 


Per acre. 


5 6 by 3 


2640 


3 9 by 3 


3872 


3 Oby 


1 


14520 


5 G 


. 2 6 


3168 


3 9 


.2 9 


4224 


2 9 . 


2 9 


5760 


5 6 


.2 


3960 


3 9 . 


. 2 6 


4646 


2 9 . 


2 6 


6336 


5 6 . 


. 1 6 


5280 


3 9 


. 2 3 


5162 


2 9 . 


2 3 


7040 


5 6 . 


. 1 


7920 


3 9 


. 2 


5808 


2 9 . 


2 


7920 


5 0. 


. 5 


1742 


3 9 . 


. 1 9 


6637 


2 9 . 


1 9 


9051 


5 . 


. 4 6 


1936 


3 9 . 


. 1 6 


7744 


2 9 . 


1 6 


10560 


5 . 


. 4 


2178 


3 9 . 


. 1 3 


9272 


2 9 . 


1 3 


12672 


5 . 


. 3 6 


2489 


3 9 . 


. 1 


11616 


2 9 . 


1 


15840 


5 . 


. 3 


2904 


3 6; 


. 3 6 


3555 


2 6 . 


2 6 


6969 


5 . 


. 2 6 


3484 


3 6 . 


. 3 3 


3829 


2 6 . 


2 3 


7740 


5 . 


. 2 


4356 


3 6 


. 3 


4148 


2 6 . 


2 


8712 


5 . 


. 1 6 


5808 


3 6 . 


. 2 9 


4525 


2 6 . 


1 9 


9956 


5 . 


. 1 


8712 


3 6 . 


.2 6 


4978 


2 6 . 


1 6 


11616 


4 6 . 


. 4 6 


2151 


3 6 . 


. 2 3 


5531 


2 6 . 


1 3 


13939 


4 6 . 


. 4 


2420 


3 6 . 


. 2 


6222 


2 6 . 


1 


17424 


4 6 . 


. 3 6 


2765 


3 6 . 


. 1 9 


7111 


2 3 . 


2 3 


8604 


4 6 . 


. 3 


3226 


3 6 . 


. 1 6 


8297 


2 3 . 


2 


9680 


4 6 . 


.2 6 


3872 


3 6 . 


. 1 3 


9956 


2 3 . 


1 9 


11062 


4 6 . 


.2 


4840 


3 6 . 


. 1 


12445 


2 3 . 


1 6 


12906 


4 6 . 


. 1 6 


6453 


3 3 . 


. 3 3 


4124 


2 3 . 


1 3 


15488 


4 6 . 


. 1 


9680 


3 3 . 


. 3 


4818 


2 3 . 


1 


19360 


4 0. 


. 4 


2722 


3 3 . 


.2 9 


4873 


2 0. 


2 


10890 


4 0. 


.3 9 


2904 


3 3 . 


.2 6 


5361 


2 . 


1 9 


12445 


4 0. 


.3 6 


3111 


3 3 . 


. 2 3 


5956 


2 . 


1 6 


14520 


4 0. 


. 3 3 


3350 


3 3 . 


.2 


6701 


2 0. 


1 3 


17424 


4 0. 


. 3 


3630 


3 3 . 


. 1 9 


7658 


2 . 


1 


21780 


4 0. 


. 2 9 


3960 


3 3 . 


. 1 6 


8935 


1 9 . 


1 9 


14223 


4 0. 


. 2 6 


4356 


3 3 . 


. 1 3 


10722 


1 9 . 


1 6 


16594 


4 0. 


. 2 3 


4840 


3 3 . 


. 1 


13403 


1 9 . 


1 3 


19913 


4 . 


.2 


5445 


3 . 


. 3 


4840 


1 9 . 


1 


24454 


4 0. 


. 1 9 


6222 


3 . 


. 2 9 


5289 


1 6 . 


1 6 


19360 


4 0. 


. 1 6 


7260 


3 0. 


. 2 6 


5808 


1 6 . 


1 3 


23232 


4 0. 


. 1 3 


8712 


3 . 


. 2 3 


6453 


1 6 . 


1 


29040 


4 0. 


. 1 


10890 


3 . 


. 2 


7260 


1 3 . 


1 3 


27878 


3 9 


. 3 9 


3097 


3 . 


. 1 9 


8297 


1 3 . 


1 


34848 


3 9 . 


. 3 6 


33181 


3 . 


. 1 6 


9680 


1 . 


1 


43560 


3 9 . 


. 3 3 


3574 


3 . 


. 1 3 


11616 









296 APPENDIX. 

AN ACRE OF LAND CONTAINS 

4 Roods, each rood 40 rods, poles, or perches. 
160 Rods, 304 yards each. 
4,840 Square yards, 9 feet each. 
43,560 Square feet, 144 inches each. 
174,240 Squares of 6 inches each. 
6,272,640 Inches, or squares of one inch each. 

A Table of various Foreign Coins, Sfc., with their value in Fed- 
eral Money, as established by an act of Congress. 

$ 

Pound sterling, 4 

Pound of Ireland, 4 

Pound of the Canadas, 4 

Pagoda of India, 1 

Mill-rea of Portugal, 1 

Rouble of Russia, 

Rupee of Bengal, 

Guilder of the Netherlands, 

Mark Banco of Hamburgh, 

Livre of France, 

Real of Spain, 

A Table of the weight and value of certain Foreign Coins. 

Names. Standard weight. Federal value. 

Gold. dwt. gr. E. $ d. c. m 

A Johannes, 18 17 6 4* 

A Half Johannes, 9 8 5 3 2 

ADoubloon, 17 9 15 5 3 5 

An English Guinea, 5 9J 057 7 5 

Silver. 

English or French Crown, 19 110 
The Dollar of Spain, Sweden, 

or Denmark, 17 6 10 

An English Shilling, 3 11 2 2 2 



d. 


c. 


m. 


8 


7 


5 


1 

















9 


4 





2 


4 





6 


6 





5 


5 





3 


9 





3 


4 


4 


1 


8 


5 


1 









DEFINITIONS 

OF TERMS USED IN AGRICULTURE. 

Aer if or 7)1, ha.\ing the form and nature of an elastic invisible fluid, like 
air. 

Agriculture, the cultivation and management of the soil, on the scale 
of a farm, by animal and manual labor and steam-power, for the 
production of materials useful for the food and service of man, and 
for various purposes in arts, manufactures, and civilized life. 

Aliment, that which nourishes animals or vegetables ; the nutritive 
quality of food, dissolved and blended with the juices of the stom- 
ach, or the moisture of the soil, and converted into chyle or sap, 
by the digestive process, and taken up by the lacteals or spongioles, 
(chyle or sap carrying vessels.) 

Alkaline Earths, so called from their possessing most of the qualities 
of alkalies, as lime, magnesia, strontia, baryta. 

Alluvial Soils, formed by the action of water, as river flats, com- 
posed of various and heterogeneous materials. 

Anbury, a disease of turnips and cabbages — tumors upon the roots, 
caused by insects. 

Animalcule, in its general acceptation, a little animal, but since the 
invention of the microscope, the term is particularly applied to the 
myriads of insects, too small to be seen by the naked eye, which 
are discovered by that instrument. 

Animal Manures, all dead animal matters, as fish, bone, horn. Ve~ 
geto-animal Manures, stable and yard dung, partaking of vegetable 
and animal matters. 

Annual Plants, such as flower, seed, and die, the year they are grown. 

Antiseptic, a term applied to those substances which check or resist 
putrefaction, as salt, &c. 

Aquatic Plants, plants growing in water. 

Arable Husbandry, where the raising of grain is the main object of 
the cultivator, as in wheat-growing districts. 

Arborculture, or planting, is the cultivation of useful trees and shrubs, 
and is another term for rural embellishment. 

Assimilation, in animal and vegetable economy, is that hidden, natu- 
ral process by which living animals and plants are enabled to con- 
vert such bodies as have a certain affinity for them, or at least after 
having undergone some preparation, and change of properties, into 
their own substance and nature. 

Biennial Plants, such as flower and seed the second year and then 
die, as the carrot, cabbage, onion. 



298 DEFINITIONS OP 

Brairding well, a Scotch term, denoting, in young grain, a foliage 

which promises an ahundant product. 
Calcareous Soils, such as will effervesce with acids. According to 

Sir Humphrey Davy, they contain at least seven eighths of sand. 
Cereal Grasses, those raised for bread-corn ; wheat, &c. 
Clayey Soils. This term, Sir Humphrey Davy says, should not be 

applied to soils which contain less than one sixth of impalpable matter. 

They are called argillaceous, and often aluminous soils. 
Composts, mixtures of various earthy and vegetable materials, as peat 

earth, lime, dung, loam, &c. 
Convertible Husbandry, mixed husbandry, which implies frequent 

change, in the same field, from tillage to grass, and from grass to 

tillage — an alternation of dry, root, and grass crops. 
Corn, in Europe, embraces every crop that is convertible into bread, 

as wheat, barley, oats, &c. In the United States, the term is partic- 
ularly applied to maize, or Indian corn. 
Cotyledons, seed-lobes, or seed-leaves, the fleshy parts of seeds, or 

the two halves, which separate in the act of sprouting, and rise above 

the ground. 
Cropping, the raising, cutting, and carrying off the crop ; generally 

applied to tillage crops. 
Culinary Vegetables, such as are raised for the table. 
Culmiferous Crops, consist of the grains and the grasses which have 

smooth, jointed stalks, (culms,) and seed contained in chaffy 

husks, as wheat, timothy, &c. These have generally fibrous 

roots. 
Dry Crops, are those which mature their seeds before they are gath- 
ered, as wheat, rye, barley, &c. They are considered the most 

exhausting crops. 
Earth, as applied to the ground, lime, clay, sand, or one or more 

earthy materials, in a friable and divided state, and either alone or 

mixed, but without the addition of much organic matter. 
Farmer, one who cultivates a farm, be he proprietor or tenant. On 

the old continent, the term is only applied to such as pay rent. As 

our cultivators are generally proprietors, we give to the term its 

broadest, though perhaps not its legitimate definition. 
Ferruginous Soils, are those which abound in iron, the presence of 

which is generally indicated by a red or yellow color, in the soil 

and the waters which pass through it. 
Floriculture, is that branch of gardening, which has cognizance of 

flowers, of ornamental shrubs, and forcing and exotic gardening, so 

far as respects plants of ornament. 
Foliage Grasses, plants cultivated for their leaves, to be used green, 

as the cabbage, spinach, lettuce tribes, &c. 
Furrow Brains, parallel drains, made at intervals of sixteen to thirty 

feet, generally in the furrows between ridges, on flat and retentive 

soils, constructed like under drains. 
Geine, of like import with Humus, which see. 
Germination, the act of sprouting ; the beginning of vegetation in a 

seed or plant. 
Grass Crops, are the grasses cut for hay, or fed off in pasturage. 



AGRICULTURAL TERMS. 299 

Grass Husbandry, where the principal object is the dairy, the rearing 

of domestic animals, &c., as in grazing districts. 
Green Crops, are clover, buckwheat, or other growing crops, buried 
by the plough to enrich the soil — considered improving crops. 

Herbage Plants, clover and other plants cultivated chiefly for the 
herb, to be used either green or to be made into hay. 

Horticulture, is to the garden, what agriculture is to the farm, — 
the application of labor and science to a limited spot, for conve- 
nience, for profit, or for ornament — though implying a higher state 
of cultivation than is common in agriculture. It includes the culti- 
vation of culinary vegetables and of fruits, and forcing or exotic 
gardening, as far as respects useful products. 

Humus, or Geine, the product of organic niatter, and the food of plants. 

Husbandman, one who farms generally ; that is, who produces both 
grain and cattle, and attends to the dairy, the poultry, and the or- 
chard. A farmer, says Loudon, may confine himself to grazing, or 
to breeding, or to haymaking, or milking, or raising green crops for 
the market, &c., but in none of these cases can he with propriety 
be called a husbandman. The term farmer is therefore not exactly 
synonymous with husbandman. 

Husbandry, is here used as comprehending all that belongs to agricul- 
ture. 

Inorganic Matter, devoid of organs ; not formed with the organs or 
instruments of life ; pure earths. 

Insoluble Matters, matters which cannot be dissolved by the waters 
of the soil. 

Landscape Gardening, is the art of so arranging the external scenes 
of a country residence, as to render them ornamental, both as do- 
mestic scenery, and as a part of the general scenery of a country. 

Latter math. After math, Rowen, are all terms which express the sec- 
ond crop of grass. 

Lay, Ley, Lea, different terms applied to meadow, pasture, or sward. 

Leguminous Crops — peas, beans, and the like — having a seed-vessel 
with two valves, in which the seeds are fixed to one side only. 

Liquid Manures, those that are applied in a liquid form, as urine, the 
liquids of the cattle-yard, soap-suds, &c. 

Manures, every species of matter capable of promoting the growth of 
vegetables. See Animal, Mineral, and Vegetable. 

Mechanical Manures, are those which serve to improve the texture 
of soils, as sand applied to clay, clay to sand, and marl or mild 
lime to both, when they are deficient in calcareous matter. 

Mineral Manures, such as serve to dissolve the organic matters in the 
soil, to induce new soluble compounds, or to stimulate the organs of 
plants, as quicklime, gypsum, ashes, salt, &c. 

Mould, organic matter in a finely divided and decomposed state, with 
a little admixture of earth, as vegetable mould, leaf mould, peat 
mould, &c. 

Organic Matters, animal or vegetable matters in a greater or less 
state of decay. 

Organic Remains, are the remains of living bodies either petrified or 
imbedded in stone. 



300 AGRICULTURAL TERMS. 

Peaty Soils, are those of morasses, swamps, &c., and to be entitled 
to this application, should consist, according to Sir Humphrey Davy, 
of one half vegetable matter. 

Perennial Plants, those that do not generally flower the first year, 
but die down to the ground, and grow up again the next spring, 
and so on for a number of years, as rhubarb, horse-radish, &c. 

Primitive Soils, such as exist in primitive or early formations of 
the globe, destitute of organic remains, as most of those of New- 
England. 

Professional Gardener, one who has served an apprenticeship to 
gardening, and understands the processes of culture, propagation, and 
forcing. 

Root Crops, are potatoes, turnips, beets, carrots, &c., which divide 
and p'ulverize the soil by their roots, and keep it clean from weeds. 
These are called ameliorating crops. 

Saline Soils, are those which become impregnated with marine or 
common salt, by being flooded with sea-water, or from other causes. 

Sandy Soils, are those which contain, according to Sir Humphrey 
Davy, at least seven eighths of sand. These are denominated sili- 
cious soils. 

Secondary Soils, belong to secondary or more recent formations, and 
abound more or less in organic remains. 

Soil, earth either of one or of several sorts, mixed with decomposed 
orgaaic matter. 

Soils, see Alluvial, Calcareous, Clayey, Ferruginous, Peaty, Prim- 
itive, Saline, Sandy, Secondary. 

Soluble Matters, organic matters which can be dissolved by the wa- 
ters of the soil. 

Stolons, roots that produce suckers or fruits ; as of the potato, which 
produce tubers, or of the quack or June grasses, which send up 
shoots or suckers. 

Strata, the plural of stratum, beds or layers of earth or other sub- 
stances. 

Stratum, a bed, or layer, naturally or artificially formed, distinct from 
the adjacent matter. 

Under Drains, drains for the conveyance of water, made of stone, tile, 
or other materials, and covered with earth. 

Vegetables, plants, organized bodies, generally deriving their nour- 
ishment from the soil. 

Vegetable Manures, vegetable matters which have not undergone the 
process of animal mastication, as green crops, straw, &c. 

Vegeto-animal Manures, see Animal Manures. 



A GLOSSARY 



OF CHEMICAL TERMS. 

Absorptio/iy the conversion of a gaseous fluid into a liquid or solid. 

Acetate, salt formed by the combination of any base with the acetic 
acid. 

Acetate of lead, sugar of lead. 

Acetic acid, concentrated vinegar. 

Acids, compounds of bases with oxygen, hydrogen, &c. 

JEEther, a volatile liquid, formed of alcohol and an acid. 

Affinity, a force by which substances oi different kinds unite. 

Alkali, (fossil, or mineral,) soda. 

Alkali, (vegetable,) potash. 

Alkali, (volatile,) ammonia. 

Alcohol, rectified spirits of wine. 

Alluvial, depositions of soil made by water. 

Alum, a compound of sulphuric acid, alumine, and potash, or ammo- 
nia. 

Alumine, earth of alum ; pure argillaceous clay. 

Anthracite, mineral coal containing no bitumen. 

Areometer, a graduated glass instrument with a bulb, by which the 
specific gravity of liquids is taken ; an hydrometer. 

Argillaceous, of the nature of clay. 

Aroma, the odor which arises from certain vegetables, or their infu- 
sions. 

Azote, nitrogen ; the basis of atmospheric air, of ammonia, nitrous 
acid, &c. 

Barometer, an instrument which shows the variation of atmospheric 
pressure. 

Bell metal, an alloy of tin and copper. 

Brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. 

Calcareous, partaking of the nature of lime. 

Caloric, the chemical term for the matter of heat. 

Caloric, (free,) radiant heat, or that which is not in chemical union 
with other bodies. 

Caloric, (latent,) the matter of heat in a state of combination ; not 
perceptible. 

Carbon, the base of diamond and of charcoal. 

Carbonate of lime, the compound of carbonic acid and lime, under 
the names of marble, limestone, calcareous spar, chalk, &c. 

Carbonate of potash, common potash ; pearlash ; salt of tartar. 

Carbonic acid, carbon combined with oxygen. 

Chalybeate, the term applied to mineral waters impregnated with iron. 

Citric acid, the acid of lemons. 

26 XIII. 



302 GLOSSARY OF 

Cohesion, a force inherent in all the particles of bodies, by which 
they are prevented from falling to pieces. 

Concentration, the act of increasing the specific gravity of bodies. 

Decomposition, separation of the constituent principles of compound 
bodies. 

Effervescence, an intense motion which takes place in certain bodies 
caused by the escape of a gaseous substance. 

Efflorescence, the pulverulent form of saline bodies produced by expo- 
sure to the air, in consequence of losing their water of crystallization. 

Elements, are, properly, the simple constituent parts of bodies, in- 
capable of decomposition, or further division. 

Essences, the essential oils obtained by distillation from odoriferous 
vegetable substances. 

Evaporation, dissipation of fluids by heat ; evaporating fluids into 
vapor by heat. 

Fermentation, a peculiar spontaneous motion, which occurs in vege- 
table substances, if exposed to proper temperature, under certain 
circumstances. It is usually divided into the acetous, vinous, sac- 
charine, and putrefactive stages. 

Fluidity, a term applied to all liquid substances. Solids are con- 
verted into fluids by combining with a certain portion of caloric. 

Gallic acid, the acid found in gall-nuts. 

Gas. All solid substances, when converted into permanently elastic 
fluids by caloric, are called gases. 

Gelatin, a chemical term for animal gelly. 

Gluten, a vegetable substance allied to gelatin. 

Gravity, that property by which bodies fall to the earth. 

Gravity, {specific,) is the weight of any solid or fluid body, compared 
with the same measure of distilled water. 

Hydrates. Those substances which have formed so intimate an union 
with water as to solidify the water, and render it one of its compo- 
nent parts, are called hydrates. 

Hydrate of lime, lime slaked in water. 

Hydrogen, the base of water ; inflammable air. 

Hydrometer , see Areometer. 

Incineration, the converting of vegetables to ashes, by burning. 

Laboratory, a room fitted up with apparatus for the performance of 
chemical operations. 

Lime, quicklime ; calcareous earth ; oxide of calcium. 

Lute, a composition for closing the junctures of chemical vessels, &c. 

Maceration, softening a solid body in a fluid, without impregnating 
the fluid with it. 

Malic acid, acid of apples. 

Malleability, that property of metals which gives them the quality 
of being extended and flattened by hammering. 

Menstruum, the fluid in which a solid body is dissolved. 

Mineral, any natural substance of a metallic, earthy, or saline nature. 

Mordants, substances which have a chemical affinity for particular 
colors, as alum. 

Mucilage, a vegetable principle allied to gum. 

Muriates, salts formed by the combination of any base with muriatic 
acid. 



CHEMICAL TERMS. 303 

Muriatic acid, spirit of sea-salt. 

Muriate of soda, common salt. 

JVttrate of potash, saltpetre, nitre. 

JVitrates, salts formed by the combination of any base with nitric 

acid. 
JVeutral salt, a substance formed by the union of an acid with an 

alkali, an earth, or a metallic oxide, in such proportions as to sat- 
urate both the base and the acid. 
Oxalic acid, the acid found in sorrel. 
Oxide, any substance combined with oxygen, in a proportion not 

sufficient to produce acidity ; rust of metals. 
Oxidize, to combine oxygen with a body without producing acidity. 
Oxygen, a simple substance, being one of the component parts of water 

and of atmospheric air ; vital air. 
Oxygen gas, oxygen converted into gas by combining with caloric. 
Pellicle, a thin skin which forms on the surface of saline and other 

liquids, when boiled down to a certain strength. 
Pyrolignic acid, an acid obtained from wood by burning. 
Sal, a salt. 
Saturation, the act of impregnating a fluid with another substance, 

till no more of it can be received or imbibed. 
Silicious earths, natural substances which are composed chiefly of 

silica ; as quartz, flint, sand, &c. 
Simple substances, synonymous with elements ; not divisible. 
Smelting, the operation of fusing ores, to separate the metal from the 

sulphur, arsenic, and other matters with which it is combined. 
Solution, the perfect union of a solid substance with a fluid. 
Sulphates, Sulphats, Sulphites, salts formed by the combination of any 

base with sulphuric acid. 
Sulphate of copper, blue vitriol ; blue stone. 
Sulphate of iron, copperas ; green vitriol. 
Sulphate of lime, gypsum. 
Sulphate of soda, Glauber's salts. 
Sulphate of zinc, white vitriol. 
Sulphate of potash, a chemical salt, composed of sulphuric acid and 

potash. Sulphur et of potash, sulphur and potash fused together. 
Sulphate of magnesia, Epsom salts. 
Sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol ; vitriolic acid. 
Super-tartrate of potash, cream of tartar. 
Subacetate of copper, verdigris. 

Sulphurets, combinations of alkaline earths or metals with sulphur. 
Tartaric acid, the acid found in the grape. 
Tartrates, Tartrites, salts formed by the combination of any base with 

the acid of tartar. 
Thermometer, an instrument to show the relative heat of bodies and 

of the atmosphere. 
Trituration, the pulverizing, or uniting of bodies by friction. 
Torrefaction, roasting of ores. 
Vacuum, a space unoccupied by matter. 



THE SCHOOL ADVERTISER NO. H. 

AUGUST, 1839. 



THE SCHOOL LIBRARY. 



MARSH, CAPEN, LYON, AND WEBB, 

109, Washington Street, Boston, 

Are now publishing, under the sanction of the Mas- 
sachusetts Board of Education, a collection of ori- 
ginal AND selected WORKS, ENTITLED, ' ThE ScHOOL 

Library.' 

The Library will embrace two series of fifty volumes 
each ; the one to be in 18mo., averaging from 250 to 280 
pages per volume ; the other in 12mo., each volume con- 
taining from 350 to 400 pages. The former, or Juvenile 
Series, is intended for children of ten or twelve years of 
age and under; the latter for individuals of that age, and 
upwards, — in other words, for advanced scholars and their 
parents. 

The Library is to consist of reading, and not school, 
class, or text books ; the design being to furnish youth with 
suitable works for perusal during their leisure hours ; works 
that will interest, as well as instruct them, and of such a 
character that they will turn to them with pleasure, when 
it is desirable to unbend from the studies of the school 
room. 

The plan will embrace every department of Science and 
Literature, preference being given to works relating to 
our own Country, and illustrative of the history, institutions, 
manners, customs, &c., of our own people. Being intended 
for the whole community, no work of a sectarian or de- 
nominational character in religion, or of a partisan char- 
acter in politics, will be admitted. 

The aim will be to clothe the subjects discussed, in a 
popular garb, that they may prove so attractive, as to lure 



the child onwards, fix his attention, and induce him, sub- 
sequently, to seek information from other and more re- 
condite works, which, if put into his hands at the onset, 
would alarm him, and induce a disgust for that which 
would appear dry and unintelligible, and of course, un- 
interesting. 

The intention is not to provide information for any one 
class, to the exclusion of others, but to disseminate knowl- 
edge among all classes. The Publishers wish the children 
of the Farmer, the Merchant, the Manufacturer, the Me- 
chanic, the Laborer, — all to profit by the lights of science 
and literature, that they may be rendered the more virtu- 
ous and happy, and become more useful to themselves, to 
one another, to the community, and mankind at large. 
To accomplish this desirable end, the Library will em- 
brace so wide a range of subjects, that every child may 
find something which will prove useful and profitable to 
him, whatever his situation, circumstances, or pursuits, in 
afterlife may be. 

The project is one of great extent, and vast importance; 
and, if properly carried out, must become of inestimable 
value to the young. Whether the anticipations of the 
Publishers, with regard to it, will be verified, time must 
determine ; but from the intellectual and moral, theoretical 
and practical character of those who have engaged to aid 
in the undertaking, they have good grounds for presuming 
that much will be accomplished, and that by their united 
efforts many obstacles, now existing to the mental, moral, 
and physical improvement of youth, will be removed, or at 
least be rendered more easily surmountable. 

Among the individuals already engaged as writers for 
one or both Series, may be mentioned — the Hon. Judge 
Story, Jared Sparks, Esq., Washington Irving, Esq., Rev. 
Dr. Wayland, Professor Benjamin Silliman, Professor Den- 
nison Olmsted, Professor Alonzo Potter, Hon. Judge Buel, 
Dr. Jacob Bigelow, Dr. Robley Dunglison, Dr. Elisha 
Bartlett, Rev. Charles W. Upham, Rev. F. W. P. Green- 
wood, Rev. Royal Robbins, Rev. Warren Burton, Ar- 
thur J. Stansbury, Esq., E. C. Wines, Esq., Robert Ran- 
toul, Jr., Esq., Professor Tucker, and Professor Elton. 

Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Mrs. E. F. Ellet, Mrs. Emma C. 
Embury, Mrs. A. H. Lincoln Phelps, Miss E. Robbins, 



Miss E. P. Peabody, Miss Mary E. Lee, Miss Caroline 
Sedgwick. 

No work will be admitted into the Library, unless it be 
approved by every member of the Board of Education ; 
which Board consists of the following individuals, viz.. 
His Excellency Edward Everett, Chairman, His Honor 
George Hull, Rev. Emerson Davis, Edmund Dwight, 
Esq., Rev. George Putnam, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Esq., 
Rev. Thomas Robbins, D. D., Jared Sparks, Esq., Hon. 
Charles Hudson, and Hon. George N. Briggs. 

The following works, have been printed, and constitute 
the first ten volumes of the l^mo. series, viz. 

LIFE OF COLUMBUS, by Washix-^gton Irving, a 
new edition, (revised by the author,) including a Visit to 
Palos, and other additions, a portrait of the Great Naviga- 
tor, a Map, and several illustrative engravings. 

PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY, in two volumes, 
with selections from the Dissertations and Notes of Lord 
Brougham and Sir Charles Bell, illustrated by numer- 
ous wood cuts, and prefaced by a Life of the Author ; 
(with a portrait;) the whole being newly arranged and 
adapted for The School Library, by Elisha Bartlett, 
M. D., Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic and 
Pathological Anatomy iii Dartmouth College. 

LIVES OF EMINENT INDIVIDUALS, CELEBRA- 
TED IN AMERICAN HISTORY, in three vols., with 
portraits of Robert Fulton, Sebastian Cabot, and Sir Henry 
Vane, and autographs of most of the individuals. 

Vol. I. WILL CONTAIN 

Life of Major-general John Stark, by His Excellency Edward Everett. 
" David Brainerd, by Rev. William B. O. Peabody. 

" Robert Fulton, by James Renwick, LL. D., Professor of Natural Phi- 
losophy and Chemistry, in Columbia College, Neiv York City. 
" Captain John Smith, by George S. Hillard, Esq. 

Vol. II. WILL CONTAIN 

Life of Major-general Ethan Allen, by Jared Sparks, Professor of History 
in Harvard University. 
" Sebastian Cabot, by Charles Ilayward, Jr., Esq. 
" Henry Hudson, by Henry R. Cleveland, Esq. 

" Major-general Joseph Warren, by Alexander H. Everett, LL. D. 
" Major-general Israel Putnam, by O. W. B. Peabody, Esq. 
" David Rittenhouse, by Professor James Renwick, L L. D 



Vol. III. WILL CONTAIX 

Life of William Pinkney, by Henry Wheaton, LL. D., Author of History of 
the Northmen. 
" Sir Henry Vane, by Rev. Charles W. Upham. 
" Major-oenekal Anthony Wayne, by John Armstrong, Esq. 
" William Ellery, by Edward T. Channing, Esq. 
" Major-general Richard Montgomery, by John Armstrong, Esq. 

THE SACRED PHILOSOPHY OF THE SEASONS, 

illustrating The Perfections of God in the Phenomena of 
the Year. In 4 vols. By the Rev. Henry Duncan, D. D., 
of Ruthivell, Scotland; with important additions, and some 
modifications to adapt it to American readers, by the Rev. 
F. W. P. Greenwood, of Boston. 

The great value and interesting nature of these volumes, to every 
class of individuals, vv^ili be seen, at once, by a perusal of the following 
Table of Contents. The w^ork contains a paper for every day in the year. 

VOL. I.— WINTER. 

I. Sunday. — Goodness of God to his Rational Creatures. The Character im- 
pressed on Nature — Compensation. Contrivance. 

COSMICAL arrangements. 

Globular Figure of the Earth. Circulation in the Atmosphere and Ocean. 
The Atmosphere. Ignis Fatuus. ii. Sunday. — General Aspect of Winter. 
Phosphorescence. Aurora Borealis. Meteoric Showers. Variety of Climates. 
Practical Effect of the Commercial Spirit produced by a Variety of Climates. 
Adaptation of Organized Existences to Seasons and Climates, in. Sunday. — 
The Omnipresence of God. Adaptation of Organized Existences to the Tropical 
Regions. Adaptation of Organized Existences to Temperate and Polar Climates. 
The Balance Preserved in the Animal and Vegetable Creation. Night. — Its Al- 
ternation with Day. Sleep. Dreaming, iv. Sunday. — The World a State of 
Discipline. 

the starry heavens. 

General Remarks. Gravitation and Inertia. The Planetary System. The 
Sun as the Source of Light and Heat. Motions of the Planets. Resisting Me- 
dium, v. Sunday. — Divine and Human Knowledsre compared. TheSatellit.es. 
Relative Proportions of the Planetary System. Distance of the Fixed Stars. 
Immensity of the Universe. Nebulae. Binary Stars. 

the microscope. 
VI. Sunday. — Discoveries of the Telescope and Microscope compared. Won- 
ders of the Microscope. — Infusory Animalcules. 

hybernation of plants. 
Plants and Animals compared. Adjustment of the Constitution of Plants to 
the Annual Cycle. Physiological Condition of Plants during Winter. 

hybernation of insects. 
Instinct, vii. Sunday.— On Seeing God in his Works. Reason in the Lower 
Animals. Eggs. Various States. Bees. The Snail. The Beetle, viii. Sun- 
day. — Greatness of God even in the Smallest Things. 

migrations of birds and quadrupeds during wintep.. 
Birds. Birds which partially migrate. Quadrupeds. 

Christmas-Day. No Season Unpleasant to the Cheerful Mind. ix. 
Sunday. — Proofs of Divine Benevolence in the Works of Creation. 



MIGRATION OF FISHES. 

The Sturgeon, the Herring, the Cod, &c. Cetaceous Animals. Migration from 
the Sea into Rivers. Migration of Eels. 
New-Year's-Day. 
Migration of the Land-Crab, x. Sunday.— 7fm<er an Emblem of Death. 

HYBERNATION OF QUADRUPEDS. 

Clothing. Storing Instincts. Torpidity. 

HYBERNATION OF MAN. 

Privation stimulates his Faculties. Provisions for his Comfort. Adaptation 
of his Constitution to the Season, xi. Sunday. — Tfie Unceasing and Universal 
Providence of God. 

INHABITANTS OF THE POLAR REGIONS. 

The Esquimaux. Food and Clothing. Dwellings and Fire. 

FROST. 

Provision for causing Ice to Float on the Surface. The Expansive and Non- 
conducting Power of Ice. Amusements connected with it. xii. Sunday. — 
Winter not Monotonous. — Boundless Variety of Nature. Effects of Frost in the 
Northern Regions. Agency of Frost in Mountainous Regions. Hoar Frost. — 
Foliations on Window-Glass, &c. Beneficent Contrivances relative to Snow. 
Sagacity and Fidelity of the Dog in Snow. 

GEOLOGY. 

Its Phenomena consistent with the Mosaic Account of the Creation, xiii. 
SuND.VY. — The Difficulty of Comprehending the Operations of Providence. Suc- 
cessive Periods of Deposit. Successive Periods of Organized Existences. State 
of the Antediluvian World. Indications of the Action of the Deluge at the Period 
assigned to it in Scripture. Cuvier's Calculation respecting the Deluge. Effects 
of the Deluge on the Present Surface of the Earth, xiv. Sunday. — The Deluge 
a Divine Judgement. 



VOL. II.— SPRING. 

COSMICAL ARRANGEMENTS. 

General Character of Spring in temperate Climates. Increasing Temperature 
of the Weather, and its Effects. Color and Figure of Bodies. Mountains. Rain. 
Springs, i. Sunday. — Advantages of Vicissitude. Rivers. 

REPRODUCTION OF VEGETABLES. 

Vegetable Soil. Vegetation. Preservation and Distribution of Seeds. Long 
Vitality of Seeds. Developement of Seeds and Plants, ii. Qvs-dky.— Analogy 
of Nature. The Vital Powers of Plants. Flowers.— Their Form, Color, and 
Fragrance. Their Organs of Reproduction, and their Secretion of Honey. The 
Violet. 

REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS. 

The Animal Structure.— Cellular Texture — Membranes, Tendons, and Liga- 
ments. Secretion, Digestion, and the Circulation of the Blood, iii. Sunday. 

'■^ The Same Lord over All.'''' The Animal Structure. Gastric .Juice. Muscular 
Power. Nature of the Proof of Creative Wisdom derived from the Animal Frame. 
The Lower Orders of Animals. The Higher Orders of Animals. 

INSTINCTS CONNECTED WITH THE REPRODUCTION OF ANIMALS. 

General Remarks. Parental Affection. Insects.— .Their Eggs. iv. Sunday. 
-On the Uniformity or Sameness in the Natural and Moral fforld. Insects.— 
Care of their Offspring, exemplified in Bees and Was])s. The Moth. The Bury- 
ing-Beetle. The Ant. Gall Flies. Deposition of Eggs in the Bodies of Animals, 
and in Insects' Nests. Birds. — Their Eggs. Prospective Contrivances, v. Sun- 
day.— On the Domestic Affections. Birds.— Relation of their Bodies to external 
Nature. Pairing. Nest-building. The Grossbeak. The Humming-bird. vi. 
Sunday. — Regeneration. Birds. — Nests of Swallows. Hatching of Eggs, and 
rearing the Brood. Cluadrupeds.— The Lioji. The Rabbit. Instincts of the Young. 



Man. — Effects of protracted Childhood on the Individual. Effects of protracted 
Childhood on the Parents and on Society, vii. Sunday. — On Christian Love. 

AGRICULTURE. 

The Difference between the Operations of Reason and Instinct, as affording 
Arguments in Favor of the Divine Pertections. Origin of Agricultural Labor. 
Origin of Property in the Soil, and the Division of Ranks. Effects of Property 
in the Soil. Benefits derived from the Principles which Stimulate Agricultural 
Improvement. The Blessings of Labor, viii. Sunday. — Spiritual Training by 
Affliction. Nature of Soils. Formation of Soils, Management of Soils. — Drain- 
ing. Irrigation. Blair-Drummond Moss. Products of the Soil. — Dissemination 
of Plants. IX. Sunday. — The Sower. Dissemination of Plants. — The Cocoa- 
Nut Tree. Mitigation of Seasons occasioned by Cultivation. The Labors of the 
Husbandman wisely distributed over the Year. The Corn Plants. — T,heir Mys- 
terious Origin. Their Distribution over the Globe. Wheat, x. Sunday. — Sab- 
bath Morning. The Corn-Plants. — Barley, Oats, Rice, Maize, and Millet. 
Leguminous Plants. — Peas and Beans. Esculent Roots. — The Potato. Vegetable 
Substances used for Weaving. The Flax Plant, xi. Sunday. — True Science the 
Handmaid of Religion. Vegetable Substances used for Weaving. The Cotton 
Plant. Vegetable' Substances used for Cordage.— Hemp. Vegetable Substances 
used for Paper. 

anniversary of the death and resurrection of CHRIST. 

The Sacrament of the Supper. The Crucifixion. The Grave, xii. Sunday. 
— The Resurrection. 

Enjoyment equally Distributed. The Enjoyments of the Poor in 
Spring. The Woods. 

retrospective view of the argument. 

The Power and Intelligence of the Creator. The Goodness of the Creator. 
The Use and Deficiency of Natural Religion. 



VOL. III.— SUMMER. 

COSMICAL arrangements. 

I. Sunday. — Summer the Perfection of the Year. Increased Heat. Internal 
Heat of the Earth. Increased Light. Electricity. Clouds. Dew. ii. Sun- 
day. — Scriptural Allusions to the Dew. Adaptations of the Faculties of Living 
Beings to the Properties of Light and Air. 

vegetables. 
Growth of Vegetables. Principles on which Horticulture is founded. History 
of Horticulture. The Turnip. Brassica or Cabbage, in. Sunday. — Spiritual 
Light. Various Garden Vegetables. Flowers — The Rose. Fruits. Ingrafting. 
TheGooseberry and Currant. The Orchard, iv. Sunday. — Spiritual Soil. Pro- 
ductions of Warm Climates used for Human Food. — The Banana. The Date Palm. 
Trees used for other Purposes than Fond. Vegetable Substances used in Tan- 
ning. Vegetable Fixed Oils. Vegetable Oils — Essential and Empyreumatic. 
Vegetable Tallow and Wax. v. Sunday. — Spiritual Culture. Vegetable Life 
in the Polar Regions. 

ANIMALS. 

Connexion between the Vegetable and Animal Kingdoms. The Sensorial Or- 
gans. Sensation and Perce])tion. The Argonaut and Nautilus. The Coral In- 
sect. VI. Sunday. — The Invisible Architect. Insect Transformations— Cocoons 
— The Silk-Worm. Insects— Their Larva State. Their Pupa or Chrysalis State. 
Their Imago or Perfect State. The Building Spider. Spider's Webb. vii. Sun- 
day. — Spiritual Transformation. Insects — Legionary and Sanguine Ants. The 
Lion Ant— The Queen-Bee. Physiological Character of Vertebrated Animals. 
Reptiles— The Tortoise— The Serpent, viii. Svnbxy.— The Old Serpent. Rey- 
liles — The Saurian Tribes. Birds— Their Relative Position. The Bill. Their 
Power of Flying. Their Power of Vision. Tlieir Voice. Their Selection of 
Food. IX. Sunday. — The Ascension of Christ. Birds — Their Gregarious Habits. 
Domestic Fowls — The Cock, the Turkey, and the Peacock. The Goose and the 
Duck. Birds of Prey — The Vulture. The Eagle. Predaceous Animals— Their 



Ofllces in Nature, x. Svsjyxv.— Christ the Judi^e of the World. Quadrupcils— 
Their Charstcteristics. Tlieir Hodily Organs. The liat. The Mouse. Ruminat- 
ing — The Goat and Sheep. Sheep Shearing, xi. Sunday. — Christ, the Good 
Shepherd. Quadrupeds— The Sheplierd's Dog. RuniiiuUing— The Cow. Thick- 
skinned — The Hog. The Horse and Ass. The Eiepliaiit. Reflections on the 
Domestic Animals. xn. Sunday. — The Destruction of the fVortd, and the 
Renovation of the Human Frame in a Future State. Fishes. Man — His Ex- 
ternal Structure. His Intellectual Powers. His Moral Powers. Physical Effects 
of Climate. Moral Effects of Climate, xiii. Sunday. — The Confusion of 
Tongues. Man — Human Language. 

Haymaking — Pleasures of Rural Scenery. 

The Variety, Beauty, and Utility of Organized Existences. 

retrospective view of the argument. 
Adaptation. Future Existence. Discipline. 
XIV. Sunday. — The Day of Pentecost — One Language. 



VOL. IV.— AUTUMN. 

phenomena, produce, and labors of THE SEASON. 

General Character of Autumn. Autumn in the City. Famine in the beginning 
of Autumn. Autumnal Vegetation. Progress of Vegetation in the Corn Plants. 
Harvest, i. Sunday. Stability of Nature. Gleaning. The Harvest Moon. 
Harvest-Home. Storing of Corn. Birds. — Their State in Autumn. 

THE woods. 

Their Autumnal Appearance, ii. Sunday. — The Powers of the World to come. 
The Woods. Their Uses. Various Kinds and Adaptations of Timber. 
Origin of the Arts. — Food, Clothing, and Shelter, 

HUMAN food. 
Its Principle. The Moral Operation of the Principle. Its Supply not inad- 
etjuate. iii. Sunday. — Christians '■'■Members one of another.'''' Provision for 
the future. — Soil still uncultivated. Improved Cultivation. Means now in Ex- 
istence. Vegetable and Animal Food. Fruits — Their Qualities. Drink, iv. 
SvN-DAY.— ''The Bread of Life.'' Milk. Wine. Tea and Coffee. Sugar. The 
Pleasures connected with Food. Comparison between the Food of Savage and 
Civilized Man. v. Sunday. — " Give us this Day our daily Bread.''' Agriculture 
of the Greeks. — Their Harvest. Agriculture of the Romans. Their Harvest. 
Progress of British Agriculture. Modern Continental Agriculture. 

human CLOTHING. 

Its Principle. Its Primitive State, vi. Sunday. — The Emptiness of Human 
Attainments. Its Ancient History. Commercial History of the Raw Material. 
The Silk Manufacture. — Its Modern History. History of Mechanical Contrivances 
connected with it. Rearing of the Cocoons, &c. The Cotton Manufacture. — Its 
Foreign History, vii. Sunday. — The Intellectual and Moral Enjoyments of 
Heaven. The Cotton Manufacture — Its British History. Improvement of Ma- 
chinery. Its American History. — Introduction of Steam Power. The Woollen 
Manufticture. — Its History. The Art of Bleaching. The Art of Dyeing. — Its 
Origin and Ancient History, viii. Sunday. — The Social and Religious Enjoy- 
ments of Heaven. The Art of Dyeing. — Its Modern History. Its Chemical 
Principles. 

ARCHITECTURE. 

Its Principle. Its original State. — Materials employed. Tools employed. Its 
Modifications by the Influence of Habit and Religion, ix. Sunday. — The Chil- 
dren of the World iviser than the Children of Light. Architecture. — Ancient His- 
tory and Practice. — Egypt. — Thebes. The Pyramids. India. — Excavated Temples. 
Central Asia. — Tower of Babel, or Temple of Belus. Babylon. Nineveh. Petra. 
Greece, x. Sunday. — Divine Strength made perfect in Human Weakness. Rome, 
The Gothic Style. Britain. Bridges. Aqueducts. Railways, xi. Sunday. — An 
Autumnal Sabbath Evening. Prospective Improvement of Locomotive Power. 
Lighthouses — The Eddystone Lighthouse. The Thames Tunnel. 



CLOSE OF AUTUMN. 

Miscellaneous Reflections on Autumnal Appearances. The Landscape at the 
Close of Autumn, xii. Sunday. — The Fall of the Leaf . 

GENERAL SriWMARY OF THE ARGUMENT. 

Government of the World by General Laws. Government of the World by a 
Particular Providence. Contrast between Savage and Civilized Life, as regards 
the Arts. As regards Domestic Comforts. As regards Commerce. As regards 
Moral Cultivation, xiii. Sunday. — '■'■The Harvest is the End of the fFor Id." 



The preceding ten volumes are now ready for delivery ;- 
and they will be followed, with all due despatch, by the 
subjoined, among others, provided they are approved by 
the Board of Education. 

LIFE OF WASHINGTON, (with a portrait, and nu- 
merous engravings,) by the Rev. Charles W. Upham, 
Author of ' the Life of Sir Henrij Vane.'' 

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIF- 
FICULTIES ; in two volumes, with Preface and Notes, 
by Francis Wayland, D. D., President of Brown Uni- 
versity. 

THE PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE UNDER DIF- 
FICULTIES, illustrated by incidents in the Lives of 
American Individuals ; in one volume, with Portraits. 

HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY, in two volumes, with illustra- 
tive wood cuts, by Robley Dunglison, M. D., Professor 
of the Institutes of Medicine in the Jefferson Medical College, 
Philadelphia; Author of ' Elements of Hygiene, ' ' The Medi- 
cal Student,^ ^Principles of Medical Practice,^ Sfc. Sfc. 

CHEMISTRY, with illustrative wood cuts, by Benja- 
min SiLLiMAN, M. D., LL. D., Professor of Chemistry, 
Mineralogy , Sfc. in Yale College. 

ASTRONOMY, by Dennison Olmsted, Professor of 
JVatural Philosophy and Astronomij in Yale College. 

This work will be a popular treatise on the Science ; it will also enter 
fully into its history, and consider the subject of Natural Theology, so 
far as it is related to Astronomy. 

NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, by Professor Olmsted. 

Both of these works will be very fully illustrated by diagrams and 
wood engravings. 



THE USEFUL ARTS, considered in connexion with 
the Applications of Science ; in two volumes, with many 
cuts, by Jacob Bigelow, M. D., Professor of Materia 
Medica in Harvard University, Author of ' the Elements of 
Technology/ Sfc. Sfc. 

We subjoin a summary of the Topics discussed in the several chap- 
ters of this Important Work, that its nature and objects may be the 
more clearly understood. 

CHAPTER I. 

Outline of the History of the Arts in Ancient and Modern Times. 
Arts of the Egyptians, Assyrians, Jews, Hindoos, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, 
Dark Ages, Modern Times, Nineteenth Century. 

CHAPTER 11. 

Of the Materials used in the Arts. 

Materials from the Mineral Kingdom — Stones and Earths — Marble, Granite, 
Sienite, Freestone, Slate, Soapstone, Serpentine, Gypsum, Alabaster, Chalk, 
Fluor Spar, Flint, Porphyry, Buhrstone, Novaculite, Precious Stones, Emery, 
Lead, Pumice, Tufa, Peperino, Tripoli, Clay, Asbestus, Cements, Limestone, 
Puzzolana, Tarras. Other Cements — Maltha. Metals — L-on, Copper, Lead, Tin, 
Mercury, Gold, Silver, Platina, Zinc, Antimony, Bismuth, Arsenic, Manganese, 
Nickel. Combustibles, &c — Bitumen, Amber, Coal, Anthracite, Graphite, Peat, 
Sulphur. Materials from the Vegetable Kingdom — Wood, Bark, Oak, Hickory, 
Ash, Elm, Locust, Wild Cherry, Chestnut, Beech, Basswood, Tulip Tree, Maple, 
Birch, Button Wood, Persimmon, Black Walnut, Tupelo, Pine, Spruce, Hemlock, 
White Cedar, Cypress, Larch, Arbor Vitae, Red Cedar, Willow, Mahogany, 
Boxwood, Lignum Vitae, Cork, Hemp, Flax, Cotton, Turpentine, Caoutchouc, 
Oils, Resins, Starch, Gum. Materials from the Animal Kingdom — Skins, Hair, 
and Fur, Quills and Feathers, Wool, Silk, Bone and Ivory, Horn, Tortoise Shell, 
"Whale Bone, Glue, Oil, Wax, Phosphorus. Materials used in Painting, Dyeing, 
and Varnishing. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Of the Form and Strength of Materials. 

Modes of Estimation, Stress and Strain, Resistance, Extension, Compression, 
Lateral Strain, Stiffness, Tubes, Strength, Place of Strain, Incipient Fracture, 
Shape of Timber, Torsion, Limit of Bulk, Practical Remarks. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Preservation of Materials. 

Stones, Metals, Organic Substances, Temperature, Dryness, Wetness, Antisep- 
tics. Timber — Felling, Seasoning. Preservation of Timber. — Preservation of 
Animal Texture — Embalming, Tanning, Parchment, Catgut, Gold Beater's Skin. 
Specimens in Natural History — Appert's Process. 

CHAPTER V. 

Of Dividing and Uniting Materials. 

Cohesion. Modes of Division—Fractnre, Cutting Machines, Penetration, Bor- 
ing and Drilling, Turning, Attrition, Sawing, Saw Mill, Circular Saw, Crushing, 
Stamping Mill, Bark Mil!, Oil Mill, Sugar Mill, Cider Mill, Grinding, Grist Mill, 
Color Mill. Modes of Union — Insertion, Interposition, Binding, Locking, Ce- 
menting, Glueing, Welding, Soldering, Casting, Fluxes, Moulds. 



iO 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of Changing the Color of Materials. 

Of Applyins: Superficial Color — PHintinjf, Colors, Preparation, Application, 

Crayons, Water Colors, Distemper, Fresco, Encaustic Painting, Oil Painting, 

Varnishing, Japanning, Polishing, Lacquering, Gilding. Of Changing Intrinsic 

Cotor— Bleaching, Photogenic Drawing, Dyeing, Mordants, Dyes, Calico Priuting. 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Arts of Writing and Printing. 

Letters. Invention of Letters, Arrangement of Letters, Writing Materials, 
Papyrus, Herculaneum, Manuscripts, Parchment, Paper, Instruments, Ink, Copy 
ing Machines, Printing., Types, Cases, Sizes, Composing, Imposing, Signatures, 
Correcting the Press, Press Work, Printing Press, Stereotyping, Machine Print- 
ing. History. 

CHAPTER VIII, 
Arts of Designing and Painting. 

Divisions, Perspective, Field of Vision, Distance and Foreshortening, Defini- 
tions. Plate II — Problems, Instrumental, Perspective, Mechanical Perspective, 
Perspectographs, Projections, Isometrical Perspective, Chiaro Oscuro, Light and 
Shade, Association, Direction of Light, Reflected Light, Expression of Shape. 
Eyes of a Portrait— Shadows, Aerial Perspective, Coloring, Colors, Shades, Tone, 
Harmony, Contrast. Remarks. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Arts of Engraving and Lithography. 

Engraving, Origin, Materials, Instruments, Styles, Line, Engraving, Medal 
Ruling, Stippling, Etching, Mezzo-tinto, Aqua Tinta, Copperplate Printing, Col- 
ored Engravings, Steel Engraving, Wood Engraving. Lithography— Principles. 
Origin, Lithographic Stones, Preparation, Lithographic Ink and Chalk, Mode of 
Drawing, Etching the Stone, Printing, Printing Ink. Remarks. 

CHAPTER X. 

Of Sculpture, Modelling, and Casting. 

Subjects— Modelling, Casting in Plaster, Bronze Casting, Practice of Sculpture, 
Materials, Objects of Sculpture, Gem Engraving, Cameos, Intaglios, Mosaic, 
Scagliola. 

CHAPTER XI. 
Of Architecture and Building. 

Architecture — Elements, Foundations, Column, Wall, Lintel, Arch, Abutments, 
Arcade, Vault, Dome, Plate I, Roof, Styles of Building, Definitions, Measures, 
Drawings, Restorations, Egyptian Stijle^ The Chinese Sti/le, The Grecian Style, 
Orders of Architecture — Doric Order, Ionic Order, Corinthian Order, Caryatides, 
Grecian Temple, Grecian Theatre, Remarks, Plate IV, Roman Style, Tuscan 
Order, Roman Doric, Roman Ionic, Composite Order, Roman Structures. Re- 
marks, Plate V, Greco-Gothic Style, Saracenic Style, Gothic Style, Definitions, 
Plate VI, Plate VII, Application. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Arts of Heating and Ventilation. 

Production of Heat— Fnel, Weight of Fuel, Combustible Matter of Fuel, Water 
in Fuel, Charcoal, Communication of Heat, Radiated and Conducted Heat, Fire 
in the Open Air, Fire Places, Admission of Cold Air, Open Fires, Franklin Stove, 
Rmnford Fire Place, Double Fire Place, Coal Grate, Anthracite Grate, Burns' 
Grate, Building a Fire, Furnaces, Stoves, Russian Stove, Cockle, Cellar Stoves, 
and Air Flues, Heating by Water, Healing by Steam, Retention of Heat, Causes 
of Loss, Crevices, Chimneys, Entries and Sky Lights, Windows, (Ventilation, Ob- 
jects, Modes, Ventilators, Culverts, Smoky Rooms, Damp Chimneys, Large Fire 



11 

Places, Close Rooma. Contiguous Doors, Short Chimneys, Opposite Fire Places, 
Neighboring Emiueuces, Turucap, &c.. Contiguous Flues, Burning of Smoke. 

CHAPTER XIII, 

Arts of Illumination. 

Flame — Support of Flame, Torches and Candles, Lamps, Reservoirs, Astral 
Lamp, Hydrostatic Lamps, Automaton Lamp, Meciianical Lamps, Fountain Lamp, 
Argand Lamp, Reflectors, Hanging of Pictures, Transparency of Flame, Glass 
Shades, Sinumlirul Lamp, Measurement of Light, Gas Lights, Coal Gas, Oil Gas, 
Gasometer, Portable Gas Lights, Safety Lamp, Lamp without Flame, Modes of 
procuring Light. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Arts of Locomotion. 

Motion of Animals, Inertia, Aids *o Locomotion, Wheel Cariage«. Wheels, Rol- 
lers, Size of W^ieeis, Line of Traction, Broad Wh-els, Forr" of Wheels, Axletrees, 
Springs, Attaching of Horses, Highways, Roads, Pavements, McAdam Roads, 
Brida;es^ 1, Wooden Bridges, 2, Stone Bridges, 3, Cast Iron Bridges, 4, Suspen- 
sion Bridges, 5, Floating Bridges, Rail Roads^ Edge Railway, Tram Road, Single 
Rail, Passings, Propelling Power, Locomotive Eugiiies, Canals, Embankments, 
Aqueducts, Tunnels, Gates and Weirs, Locks, Boats, Size of Canals, Sailing, Form 
of a Ship, Keel and Rudder, Effect of the Wind, Stal)ility of a Ship, Steam Boats, 
Diving Bell, Submarine Navigation, Aerostation, Balloon, Parachute. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Elements of Machinery. 

Machines, Motion, Rotary or Circular Motion, Band Wheels, Rag Wheels, 
Toothed Wheels, Si)iral Gear, Bevel Gear. Crown Wheel, Universal .Joint, Per- 
petual Screw, Brush Wheels, Ratchet Wheel, Distant Rotary Motion, Change of 
Velocity, Fusee, Alternate or Reciprocating Motion, Cams, Crank, Parallel Mo- 
tion, Sun and Planet Wheel, Inclined Wheel, Epicycloidal Wheel, Rack and Seg- 
meni, Rack and Pinion, Belt and Segment, Scapements, Continued Rectilinear 
Motion, Band, Rack, Universal Lever, Screw, Change of Direction, Toggle Joint, 
Of Ensraging and Disengaging Machinery, Of Equalizing Motion, Governor, 
Fly Wheel, Friction, Remarks. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Of the Moving Forces used in the Arts. 

Sources of Power, Vehicles of Power, Animal Power, Men, Horses, Water 
Power, Oveishot Wheel, Chain Wheel, Undershot Wheel, Back Water, Besant's 
Wheel, Lambert's Wheel, Breast Wheel, Horizontal Wheel, Barker's Mill, Wind 
Power, Vertical Windmill, Adjustment of Sails, Horizontal Windmill, Steam 
Power, Steam, Applications of Steam, By Condensation, By Generation, By Ex- 
pansion, The Steam Engine, Boiler Appendages, Engine, Noncondensing Engine, 
Condensing Engines, Description, Evpan^ion, Engines, Valves, Pistons, Parallel 
Motion, Historical Remarks, Projected Improvements, Rotative Engines, Use of 
Steam at High Temperatures, Use of Vapors of Low Temperature, Gas Engines, 
Steam Carriages, Steam Gun, Gunpowder, Manufacture, Detonation, Force, Pro- 
perties of a Gun, Blasting. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Arts of Conveying Water. 

Of Conducting J^'afer— Aqueducts, Water Pipes, Friction of Pipes, Obstruction 
of Pipes, Syphon, Of Raising Water, Scoop Wheel, Persian Wheel, Noria, Rope 
Pump, Hydreole, Archimedes' Screw, Spiral Pump, Centrifugal Pump, Common 
Pumps, Forcing Pumps, Plunger Pump, Delahire's Pump, Hydrostatic Press, 
Lifting Pump, Bag Pump, Double Acting Piunp, Rolling Pump, Eccentric Pump, 
Arrangement of Pipes, Chain Pumj), Schemnitz Vesst-ls, or Hungarian Machine, 
Hero's Fountain, Atmosplieric Machines, Hydraulic Ram, Of Projecting Water. 
Fountains, Fire Engines, Throwing Wheel. 



CHArXER XVIII. 

Arts of Combining Flexible Fibres. 

Theory of Twisting, Rope Making, Cotton Manufacture, Elementary Inven- 
tions, Batting, CarJins. Drawing, Roving, Spinning, Mule Spinning, Warping, 
Dressing, Weaving, Twilling, Double Weaving, Cross Weaving, Lace, Carpeting, 
Tapestry, Velvets, Linens, Woolens, Felting, Paper Making. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Arts of Horology. 
Sun Dial, Clepsydra, Water Clock, Clock Work, Maintaining Power, Regulat- 
ing Movement, Pendulum, Balance, Scaperaent, Description of a Clock, Striking 
Part, Description of a Watch. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Arts of Metallurgy. 

Extraction of Metals, Assaying, Alloys, Gold, Extraction, Cupellation, Parting, 
Cementation, Alloy, Working, Gold Beating, Gilding on Metals, Gold Wire, 
Silver, Extraction, Working, Coining, Plating, Copper, Extraction, Working, 
Brass, Manufacture, Buttons, Pins, Bronze, Lea*/, E detraction, Manufacture, Sheet 
Lead, Lead Pipes, Leaden Shot, Tin, Block Tin, Tin Plates, Silvering of Mirrors, 
Iron, Smelting, Crude Iron, Casting, Malleable Iron, Forging, Rolling and Slit- 
ting, Wire Drawing, Nail Making, Gun Making, Steel, Alloys of Steel, Case Hard- 
ening, Tempering, Cutlery. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Arts of Vitrification. 

Glass, Materials, Crown Glass, Fritting, Melting, Blowing, Annealing, Broad 
Glass, Flint Glass, Bottle Glass, C> Under Glass, Plate Glass, Moulding, Pressing, 
Cutting, Stained Glass, Enamelling, Artificial Gems, Devitrification, Reaumur's 
Porcelain, Crystallo-Ceramie, Glass Thread, Remarks. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Arts of Induration by Heat. 

Bricks, Tiles, Terra Cotta, Crucibles, Pottery, Operations, Stone Ware, White 
Ware, Throwing, Pressing, Casting, Burning, Printing, Glazing, China Ware, 
European Porcelain, Etruscan Vases. 

A FAMILIAR TREATISE ON THE CONSTITU- 
TION OF THE UNITED STATES, by the Hon. Judge 
Story, L L. D., Author of ' Commentaries on the Constitu- 
tion,^ <^'C. 

LIFE OF DR. FRANKLIN. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF 
FRANKLIN, by Jared Sparks, L L. D., Professor of His- 
tory in Harvard University, Author of ' the Life and Writings 
of Washington,'' ' the Lfe and Writings of Franklin, ' Sfc ,Sfc. 

CHRISTIANITY AND KNOWLEDGE, by the Rev. 

RoYAL ROBBINS. 

The design of this Work is to show what Christianity has done for 
the human intellect, and what that has done for Christianity. 



13 

THE LORD OF THE SOIL, OR, PICTURES OF 
AGRICULTURAL LIFE; by Rev. Warren Burton, 

Author of' The District School as it Was,'' S^c. <Sfc. 

SCIENCE AND THE ARTS, by the Rev. Alonzo 

Potter, D. D., Professor of Moral Philosophj and Rhetoric, 
in Union College, Scheneciady, JV. Y. 

The design of this Work is to call attention to the fact that the Arts 
are the result of intelligence — that they have, each one its principles 
or theory — that these principles are furnished by Science, and that he, 
therefore, who would understand the Arts, must know something of 
Science ; while, on the other hand, he who would see the true power 
and worth of Science ought to study it in its applications. The work 
will be made up of facts, illustrating and enforcing these views — so ar- 
ranged as to exhibit the invariable connexion between jorocesses in Art, 
and laws in JVature. The importance of such a work requires no 
comment. 

AGRICULTURE, by the Hon. Judge Buel, of Albany, 
Editor of ' the Cultivator. ' 

This Work is intended as an aid to the Young Farmer, and from 
the known character of the gentleman who has it in hand, there can be 
no doubt but that it will be executed in a highly satisfactory manner. 
The following, among other subjects, will be therein treated of, viz. 

1. The Importance of Agriculture to a Nation. 

2. Improvement in our Agriculture practicable and necessary. 

3. Some of the principles of the new and improved Husbandry. 

4. Agriculture considered as an Employment. 

5. Earths and Soils. 

6. Improvement of the Soil. 

7. Analogy between Animal and Vegetable Nutrition. 

8. Further Improvement of the Soil. 

9. " " by Manures, Animal and Vegetable. 

10. " " by Mineral Manures. 

11. Principles and Operations of Draining. 

12. Principles of Tillage. 

13 Operations of Tillage, &c. Ac- 
Due notice will also be taken of alternating crops, root husbandry, mixed hus- 
bandry, the management of pasture and meadow lands, the garden, orchard, &c. 

Cuts, illustrative of the various operations spoken of and recommended, will 
be given. 

GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, by Charles T. 
Jackson, M. D., Geological Surveyor of Maine and Rhode 
Island. 

STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES, by 

George Tucker, Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, Author of ' the Life of Jefferson,^ Sfc. Sfc. 



14 

AMERICAN TREES AND PLANTS, used for medi- 
cinal and economical purposes and employed in the Arts, 
with numerous engravings ; by Professor Jacob Bigelow, 
Author of ' Plants of Boston,' ' Medical Botany,' Sfc. Sfc. 

MORAL EFFECTS OF INTERNAL IMPROVE- 
MENTS, by Robert Rantoul, Jr., Esq. 

LIVES OF THE REFORMERS, by Rev. Romeo El- 
ton, Professor of Languages in Brown University. 

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF DISTINGUISH- 
ED FEMALES, by Mrs. Emma C. Embury, oi Brooklyn, 

jy. Y. 

SKETCHES OF AMERICAN CHARACTER, by 
Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, Editor of ' the Ladies' Book,' Jiuthor 
of the '■Ladies' Wreath,' ' Flora's Interpreter,' S^c. Sfc. 

DO RIGHT AND HAVE RIGHT, by Mrs. Almira 
H. Lincoln Phelps, Principal of the Literary Department 
of the Young Ladies' Seminary, at West Chester, Pa., 
formerly of the Troy Seminary , JV. Y., Author of 'Familiar 
Lectures on Botany,' 'Female Student,' Sfc. 

The object of this Work may be gathered from the following re- 
marks of Mrs. Phelps. " A popular work on the principles of law, with 
stories illustrating these principles, might be very profitable to people 
in common life, as well as to children. The ward cheated by a guard- 
ian, the widow imposed on by administrators or executors, the ivife 
abandoned by a husband, with whom she had trusted her paternal in- 
heritance, the partner in business, overreached by his crafty associate, 
for want of a knowledge of the operations of the law, — all these might 
be exhibited in such a way as to teach the necessity of legal knowledge 
to both sexes, and to all ages and classes." 

SCENES IN THE LIFE OF JOANNA OF SICILY, 
by Mrs. E. F. Ellet, of Columbia, S. C. 

This is written with a view to young readers, and for the purpose of 
illustrating important historical events. 

The Publishers have also in preparation for this Series, 
a History of the United States, and of other Countries, a 
History of the Aborigines of our Country, a History of 
Inventions, Works on Botany, Natural History, &c. &c. 
Many distinguished writers, not here mentioned, have been 
engaged, whose names will be in due time announced, 
although at present, we do not feel at liberty to make them 
public. 



15 

Among the works prepared, and in a state of forward- 
ness, for the Juvenile Settles are the following, viz. 

MEANS AND ENDS, OR SELF TRAINING, by Miss 

Caroline Sedgwick, Author of ' The Poor Rich Man^ 
and Rich Poor Man,' ' Live and Let Live,' ' Home,' Sfc. Sfc. 

NEW-ENGLAND HISTORICAL SKETCHES, by 
N. Hawthorne, Author of' Twice Told Tales,' S^c. 

CONVERSATIONS AND STORIES BY THE 
FIRE SIDE, by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, 

FAILURE NOT RUIN, by Horatio G. Hale, A. M. 

TALES IN PROSE, blending instruction with amuse- 
ment ; by Miss Mary E. Lee, of Charleston, S. C. 

PICTURES OF EARLY LIFE :— Stories; each in- 
culcating some moral lesson ; by Mrs. Emma C. Embury, 
of Brooklyn, JY. Y. 

FREDERICK HASKELL'S VOYAGE ROUND 
THE WORLD, by H. G. Hale, A. M., Philologist to 
the Exploring Expedition. 

BIOGRAPHY FOR THE YOUNG, by Miss E. Rob- 
bins, Author of ' American Popular Lessons,' Sequel to the 
same, Sfc. 

THE WONDERS OF NATURE, by A. J. Stansbury, 
Esq., of Washington City ; illustrated by numerous cuts. 

WORKS OF ART, by the same ; illustrated by numer- 
ous cuts. 

PLEASURES OF TASTE, and other Stories select- 
ed from the Writings of Jane Taylor, with a sketch of her 
life, (and a likeness,) by Mrs. S. J. Hale. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MRS. 
BARBAULD, with a Life and Portrait. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MARIA 
EDGEWORTH, with a Life and Portrait. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF MRS. 
SHERWOOD, ivithaLife and Portrait. 

SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF DR. 
AIKIN, with a Sketch of his Life, by Mrs. Hale. 

CHEMISTRY FOR BEGINNERS, by Benjamin Sil- 
LiMAN, Jr., Assistant in the Department of Chemistry, M'lnr- 
eralogy, and Geology in Yale College ; aided by Professor 

SiLLIMAN. 



16 

MY SCHOOLS AND MY TEACHERS, by Mrs. A. 
H. Lincoln Phelps. 

The author's design, in this work, is to describe the Common Schools 
as they were in New-England at the begmning of the present century ; 
to delineate the peculiar characters of different Teachers ; and to give 
a sketch of her various school companions, with their progress in after 
life, endeavoring thereby to show that the child, while at school, is 
forming the future man, or woman. 

It is not the intention of the Publishers to drive these 
works through the Press with a railroad speed, in the hope 
of securing the market, by the multiplicity of the publica- 
tions cast upon the community; they rely for patronage, 
upon the intrinsic merits of the works, and consequently 
time must be allowed the writers to mature and systematize 
them. The more surely to admit of this, the two Series 
will be issued in sets of five and ten volumes at a time. 
Besides the advantage above alluded to, that will result 
from such an arrangement, it will place The School Li- 
brary within the reach of those Districts, which, from the 
limited amount of their annual funds, would not otherwise 
be enabled to procure it. 

The works will be printed on paper and with type ex- 
pressly manufactured for the Library; will be bound in 
cloth, with leather backs and corners, having gilt titles 
upon the backs, and for greater durability, cloth hinges 
inside of the covers. 

The larger Series will be furnished to Schools, Academies, 
&c., at seventy-Jive cents per volume, and the Juvenile Series 
at foriij cents per volume ; which the Publishers advisedly 
declare to be cheaper, than any other series of works that 
can be procured at home or abroad, bearing in mind their 
high intellectual character, and the style of their mechanical 
execution. 

The Publishers solicit orders from School Committees, 
Trustees, Teachers, and others, for either or both Series, 
and wish particular directions ho^u, to whom, and to what 
place the books shall be forwarded. 

Annexed are Specimen Pages of the two Series. 



THE ARTERIES. 



271 




carried into the reservoir, and they fill it half full of water, 
C ; the mouth of the pipe, D, which is to convey away 
the water, reaches into the water in the reservoir. As 
the water rises, the air is compressed : so that, although 
the pumps act alternately, the elasticity of the contained 
air acts uninterruptedly in pressing on the surface of the 
water, and raising it by the tube, D, in an equable stream. 
The elasticity of the contained air, fills up the interval 
between the actions of the pumps, and admits of no in- 
terruption to the force with which the water is propelled 
upwards. 

Surely these are sufficient indications of the necessity 
of three powers acting in propelling the blood from the 
heart. The first, is a sudden and powerful action of 
the ventricle : the second, is a contraction of the artery, 
somewhat similar, excited by its distention : the third, 
though a property independent of life, is a power permit- 
ting no interval or alternation ; it is the elasticity of the 
coats of the artery : and these three powers, duly adjust- 
ed, keep up a continued stream in the blood-vessels. It 
is tine, that when an artery is wounded, the blood flows 



308 



NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



The superior sagacity of animals which hunt their 
prey, and which, consequently, depend for their liveli- 
hood upon their nose, is well known in its use ; but not 
at all known in the organization which produces it. 

The external ears of beasts of prey, of Hons, tigers, 
wolves, have their trumpet-part, or concavity, standing 
forward, to seize the sounds which are before them — 
viz., the sounds of the animals which they pursue or 
watch. The ears of animals of flight are turned back- 
ward, to give notice of the approach of their enemy from 
behind, whence he may steal upon them unseen. This 
is a critical distinction, and is mechanical ; but it may be 
suggested, and, I think, not without probability, that it 
is the effect of continual habit. 




[Heads of the hare and wolf, showing the different manner 
in which the ears are turned. — Am. Ed.] 

The eyes of animals which follow their prey by night, 
as cats, owls, &c., possess a faculty not given to those 
of other species, namely, of closing the pupil entirely. 



OF COLUMBUS. 61 

It is difficult even for the imagination to conceive the 
feehngs of such a man, at the moment of so subhme a 
discovery. What a bewildering crowd of conjectures 
must have thronged upon his mind, as to the land which 
lay before him, covered with darkness. That it was 
fruitful was evident from the vegetables which floated 
from its shores. He thought, too, that he perceived in 
the balmy air the fragrance of aromatic groves. The 
moving light which he had beheld, proved that it was the 
residence of man. But what were its inhabitants.'^ Were 
they hke those of other parts of the globe ; or were they 
some strange and monstrous race, such as the imagina- 
tion in those times was prone to give to all remote and 
unknown regions? Had he come upon some wild island, 
far in the Indian seas; or was this the famed Cipango 
itself, the object of his golden fancies? A thousand 
speculations of the kind must have swarmed upon him, 
as he watched for the night to pass away; wondering 
whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilder- 
ness, or dawn upon spicy groves, and glittering fanes, and 
gilded cities, and all the splendors of oriental civilization. 



CHAPTER XI. 

First Landing of Columbus in the Mw World. — Cruise 
among the Bahama Islands. — Discovery of Cuba and 
Hispaniola. [1492.] 

When the day dawned, Columbus saw before him a 
level and beautiful island, several leagues in extent, of 
great freshness and verdure, and covered with trees like 
a continual orchard. Though every thing appeared in 
the wild luxuriance of untamed nature, yet the island was 
evidently populous, for the inhabitants were seen issuing 
from the woods, and running from all parts to the shore. 
They were all perfectly naked, and from their attitudes 
6 I. 



286 



A VISIT TO PALOS. 



residence of Martin xALlonzo or Vicente Yanez Pinzon, 
in the time of Columbus. 




We now arrived at the church of St. George, in the 
porch of which Cokimbus first proclaimed to the inhabi- 
tants of Palos the order of the sovereigns, that they 
should furnish him with ships for his great voyage of dis- 
covery. This edifice has lately been thoroughly repaired, 
and, being of solid mason-work, promises to stand for 
ages, a monument of the discoverers. It stands outside 
of the village, on the brow of a hill, looking along a Httle 
valley toward the river. The remains of a Moorish 
arch prove it to have been a mosque in former times ; 
just above it, on the crest of the hill, is the ruin of a 
Moorish castle. 

I paused in the porch, and endeavored to recall the 
interesting scene that had taken place there, when Co- 
lumbus, accompanied by the zealous friar Juan Perez, 
caused the public notary to read the royal order in pres- 
ence of the astonished alcaldes, regidors, and alguazils ; 
but it is difficult to conceive the consternation that must 
have been struck into so remote a little community, by 
this sudden apparition of an entire stranger among them, 
bearing a command that they should put their persons 
and ships at his disposal, and sail with him away into the 
unknown wilderness of the ocean. 

The interior of the church has nothing remarkable, 



THE COTTON PLANT. 335 

work of creation and the work of grace revealed in the 
word of God. Proofs corroborative of the authenticity 
of the Bible, have been gathered from those very sources 
which formerly were applied to by the skeptic for his 
sharpest weapons ; and at this moment, (such is the secu- 
rity with which Christianity may regard the progress of 
knowledge,) there does not exist in our own country, nor, 
so far as I am aware, in any other, one philosopher of 
eminence who has ventured to confront Christianity and 
philosophy, as manifestly contradictory. May we not 
venture to hope that, in a very short time, the weak darts 
of minor spirits, which from time to time are still permit- 
ted to assail our bulwarks, will be also quenched, and the 
glorious Gospel, set free from all the oppositions of sci- 
ence falsely so called, shall walk hand in hand over the 
earth with a philosophy always growing in humility, be- 
cause every day becoming more genuine. C. J. C. D. 



TWELFTH WEEK— MONDAY. 

VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES USED FOR WEAVING. THE COTTON- 
PLANT. 

The cotton-plant, another vegetable substance, exten- 
sively used in manufactures, differs materially from that 
already described, in its properties, appearance, and hab- 
its. Instead of being generally diffused over temperate 
climates, it belongs more properly to the torrid zone, and 
the regions bordering on it ; and instead of being chiefly 
confined to one species, as to its peculiar and useful qual- 
ities, its varieties seem scarcely to have any limit, extend- 
ing from an herb* of a foot or two in height, to a treef 

* Gossypium herbaceum, or common herbaceous cotton-plant. 

t Bombax ceiba, or American silk cotton-tree. — [The Baobab, or 
Adansonia digitata, an enormous and long-lived tree, also belongs to 
this family. But it is incorrect to call these trees " varieties " of the 
cotton plant. They are nearly allied to it, indeed, but they stand in dif- 
ferent divisions of the great order of malvace:e, or mallows ; and the 
downy contents of their pods are of little use compared with true cotton. 
—Am. Ed.] 



378 GLOSSARY. 

Coup de main, (French term,) a military expression, denoting an in- 
stantaneous, sudden, unexpected attack upon an enemy. 
Dulce et decorum est pro patria jnori, It is delightful and glorious to 

die for one's country. 
Effigies Seb. Caboti Angli filii Joannis Caboti militis aurati. As 
will be seen by the text, where this inscription occurs, (p. 121,) 
there is an ambiguity in the application of the last two words. The 
other part of the inscription, may be rendered, " the portrait (or 
likeness) of Sebastian Cabot, of England, son of John Cabot." 
Miles, or militis, means, literally, a warrior, or soldier, or officer 
of the army ; and in the English law, sometimes indicates a knight. 
Auraius, or aurati, means gilt, gilded, or decked with gold. Eques 
means a horseman, or knight, who was frequently called eques aura- 
tus, because, anciently, none but knights were allowed to beautify 
their armor, and other habiliments, with gold. 
E71 masse, in a body, in the mass, altogether. 
Eques, and Eques auraius. See Effigies. 
Fascine, {p\. fascines,) a bundle of fagots, or small branches of trees, 

or sticks of wood, bound together, for filling ditches, &c. 
Formula, {p\. formula;,) a prescribed form or order. 
Geodcetic, relating to the art of measuring surfaces. 
Gramina, grasses. 

Green Mountain Boys, a term applied, during the Revolutionary War, 
to the inhabitants of Vermont, (Green Mountain,) particularly those 
who were in the army. 
Gymnotus, the electric eel. 

Habeas Corpus, "you may have the body." A writ, as it has been 
aptly termed, of personal freedom ; which secures, to any individual, 
who may be imprisoned, the privilege of having his cause imme- 
diately removed to the highest court, that the judges may decide 
whether there is ground for his imprisonment or not. 
Hipparchus, a celebrated mathematician and astronomer of Nicoea, in 
Bithynia, who died 125 years before the Christian era. He was 
the first after Thales and Sulpicius Gallus, who found out the exact 
time of eclipses, of which he made a calculation for 600 years. He is 
supposed to have been the first, who reduced astronomy to a science, 
and prosecuted the study of it systematically. 
Loyalists, Royalists, Refugees, and Tories. In the times of the Revo- 
lution, these terms were used as technical or party names, and were 
sometimes applied indiscriminately. Strictly speaking, however, 
Loyalists, were those whose feelings or opinions were in favor of 
the mother country, but who declined taking part in the Revolu- 
tion ; Royalists, were those who preferred or favored, a kingly gov- 
ernment ; Refugees, were those who fled from the country and 
sought the protection of the British ; and Tories, were those, who 
actually opposed the war, and took part with the enemy, aiding 
them by ail the means in their power. 
Magnetic Variation, a deviation of the needle in the mariner's com- 
pass, from an exact North and South direction. 
Master-at-arms, an officer appointed to take charge of the small arms 
in a ship of war, and to teach the officers and crew the exercise of 



18mo. pages. 

MARY BOND IN A SICK-ROOM. 129 

ring it all the time. Of course I do not make it 
every time it is wanted, for sometimes, when I 
want it extra good, I boil and stir it a full hour, 
and then I put it away in a close vessel and in a 
cool place. For Raymond, or for any one get- 
ting well, and free from fever, I put in a third 
wheat flour, and half milk. You see it is a very 
simple process, sir." 

"Yes — simple enough. But it is to these 
simple processes that people will not give their 
attention." 

Mary had the happiness of seeing Raymond 
sitting up before their parents returned, and when 
they drove into the great gate, and up the lane, 
he was in his rocking-chair by the window, watch- 
ing for them. They had heard of his illness, and 
were most thankful to find him so far recovered. 
The Doctor chanced to be present when they 
arrived. *' O, Doctor !" said Mrs. Bond, after 
the first greetings were over, " how shall I ever 
be grateful enough to you .'^" 

'' I have done very little, Mrs. Bond," replied 
the honest Doctor. " In Raymond's case, medi- 
cine could do little or nothing. Nature had been 
overtasked, and wanted rest and soothing. Under 
God, Raymond owes his recovery to Mary." 

"O, mother!" exclaimed Raymond, bursting 
into tears, " she is the best sister in the world !" 

" She is the best sister in the two worlds !" 
cried little Grace Bond, a child of five years old. 

A source of true comfort and happiness is such 
a child and such a sister as Mary Bond ! — a light 



138 THE LOST CHILDREN. 

US, as soon as we are missed ; let us keep on 
and perhaps we may find some other path." 

The poor children proceeded on their course, 
unconscious that every step was taking them deep- 
er into the forest, until, completely bewildered by 
the thick darkness, and overcome with fatigue, they 
could go no further. " Let us pray to God, and 
then we can lie down, and die in peace," said 
George ; and the innocent children knelt down on 
the fallen leaves, and lisped their simple prayers, 
as they were accustomed to do at their mother's 
side. 

"We must try to find some shelter, George," 
said Kate, as they arose from their knees, " this 
chill air will kill you, even if we escape the wild 
beasts." As she spoke, the light of a young 
moon which faintly illumined the depths of the 
wood, enabled her to discover a hollow log lying 
near. Tearing off some branches from the brittle 
hemlock tree, she piled them around the log, in 
such a manner, as to form a sort of penthouse ; 
and, placing George within the more effectual 
shelter of the log, she lay down by his side. Worn 
with fatigue, notwithstanding their fears, the chil- 
dren soon fell into a profound sleep ; and the 
beams of the morning sun, shining through the 
branches which formed their covering, first awoke 
them from their peaceful slumbers. 

Their litde hearts swelled with gratitude to the 
merciful God, who had preserved them through 
the perils of the night, and the morning hymn which 
was wont to resound within the walls of their 






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